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THE HIGH SCHOOL 

A STUDY OF ORIGINS 
AND TENDENCIES 



BY 

FRANK WEBSTER SMITH, PH.D. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

JOHN CALVIN HANNA 

SUPERVISOR OF HIGH SCHOOLS, 
STATE OF ILLINOIS. 



STURGIS & WALTON 

COMPANY 

1916 



.5 6 



Copyright 1916 
By STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY 



Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1916 



DEC 30 1316 



^CI.A453354 



TO MY PARENTS 
HITHER AND YON. 



CHAPTER 



I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

IX 

X 

XI 

XII 

XIII 

XIV 

XV 

XVI 

XVII 

XVIII 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction ix 

Preface - xvii 

Secondary Education in Primitive Times i 

Secondary Education in Primitive Tribes To-day 21 

Secondary Training in Homer and Hesiod ... 39 

Secondary Education in Greece — Early Historic 
Period .- 48 

Secondary Education in Greece — Later Historic 
Period 61 

Secondary Education in Plato and Aristotle . . 73 

Secondary Education in Rome — Early Period . 99 

Secondary Education in Rome — Later Period . no 

Secondary Education in Quintilian and Cicero . 129 

Jesus, Teacher — New Principles of Education 164 

Secondary Education in the Early Christian 
Centuries 184 

Secondary Education from the Sixth Century to 
the Early University Period 193 

Secondary Education in the Early University 
Period 213 

Foundations of a New Secondary School . . . 235 

Secondary Education in the Early Renaissance 240 

Secondary Education in the Late Renaissance . 252 

Notable Contributions of the Renaissance to 
Secondary Education — a General Summary . 273 

Seventeenth-Eighteenth Century Movements in 

Secondary Education 285 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XIX Secondary Education in the Nineteenth Century 

— General History 293 

XX Secondary Education in the Nineteenth Century 

— Principles and Practice 314 

XXI The High School — Development of Secondary 

Education in the United States 323 

XXII A Review of the Evolution of Secondary Educa- 
tion from Different View-Points 343 

XXIII The High School of the Twentieth Century — 

Programs of Studies and Curricula .... 359 

XXIV The High School of the Twentieth Century — 

Principles and Method 409 

XXV The High School of the Twentieth Century — 

Organization, Equipment, Administration . . 421 

Graphic Summary Insert 

Bibliography 443 

Index ; ... 453 



INTRODUCTION 

The high school is coming into its own. Secondary edu- 
cation has begun lately to assume a prominence and to have 
a recognized importance such as would be suggested by the 
priority of its development. 

As the painstaking historical survey in the following chap- 
ters makes clear, formal secondary education was developed 
ages before any need for organized elementary education 
arose. The latter came later as a necessity following the 
development of written language. Such a historical study 
of secondary education is of value because it is a study 
of a great development, an examination of secondary edu- 
cation as an important and interesting sociological phenom- 
enon. It is, besides, a practical investigation of the varied 
applications of means to ends that have been developed in 
each of the epochs of secondary education. It presents a 
study of a pivotal institution and of its relations to different 
times and conditions. 

The aim toward which the present movement in educa- 
tion is tending is universal complete education within the 
limits of the public school period. This of course means 
that the number of high schools must be increased many 
times, and these high schools, in order to meet present and 
future social conditions, must evolve out of historic educa- 
tion. 

The present book may well serve as an aid in studying 
this great movement and in guiding it with historic judg- 
ment. To study a problem we must know its roots. The 
study thus becomes of immediate practical value to every 
teacher and parent of adolescents. Through its suggestive- 
ness we may be guided in recognizing the right aims of high 
school training, in harmonizing practice with sound theory, 
and in adapting curriculum making, method, and teacher- 

ix 



x INTRODUCTION 

training to the actual purposes of the school that the com- 
munity establishes and maintains for its youth. 

It seems a work of supererogation to insist upon this 
clearness of view and this honesty and intelligence of effort, 
but any examination of the high schools of the country in 
their actual work will reveal in many places a woeful lack 
of clear vision and of honest, intelligent effort. 

There are two great changes that have come about in the 
social life of the United States within the last fifty years — 
one in our population, the other in our education. At first 
these two changes may seem to be wholly unrelated, and 
when one attempts to account for them historically he finds 
himself wandering far a-field and traveling apparently now 
in one direction, then in another. 

These are the two changes : — In 1867 the United States 
Commissioner of Education made the statement, in answer 
to an inquiry, that there were then about forty public high 
schools in this country. In 19 15 there were eleven thou- 
sand five hundred public high schools. This is an increase 
of nearly thirty thousand per cent. The increase in popula- 
tion in that time was about one hundred and fifty per cent. 
In 1867, there was one public high school to every nine 
hundred and fifty thousand of the population, in 19 15 one 
public high school to every eight thousand five hundred. 

This means that within less than fifty years the public 
high school idea has become firmly established in this coun- 
try. At the earlier date only a small proportion of the 
population believed that it was the duty of the State to 
furnish free secondary education to the boys and girls of 
the country. In the minds of most men at that time, public 
school education included only what we now call elementary 
education. An overwhelming majority of the voters of this 
country in 1867 therefore believed that the State had per- 
formed its full duty toward the rising generation when it 
furnished free schooling from the age of six to the age of 
fourteen. Eight years was the highest limit of the average 
American's conception of a public education. 

At the present time, with an investment of not less than 
two hundred million dollars in public high school buildings, 



INTRODUCTION xi 

with the constant employment of fifty-eight thousand high 
school teachers at regular salaries, and with a total annual 
outlay, on high school education, of over sixty million dol- 
lars raised by general taxation, we may fairly conclude 
that the average voter believes that it is the duty of the 
State to furnish to its boys and girls a public school educa- 
tion that includes four years in the high school, — that the 
public school should open its doors to the youth of the 
country from the age of six to the age of eighteen or twenty. 
Within fifty years therefore the conception held by the peo- 
ple of the United States as to what constitutes a public 
school education has increased till the standard length of a 
boy's or girl's schooling at the State's expense has risen to 
twelve years instead of eight, — a fifty per cent, expansion of 
public opinion on this vital matter. This is one change that 
has come, and it is a most significant and far-reaching one. 

The other great change concerns the character of our 
population and is equally vital, far-reaching, and significant, 
though it does not primarily suggest congratulation, encour- 
agement, and a feeling of optimism. 

All of us Americans — excepting a few Indians — are 
immigrants or descendants of comparatively recent immi- 
grants. No American family can trace an American abid- 
ing place farther back than a dozen generations or so. All 
of us have ancestors, within a few generations back, who 
were born " in the old country." 

And the particular old country from which those ances- 
tors came we can usually name for ourselves, even though, 
as is frequently the case, we cannot give the Christian name 
of the original immigrant. In the average American audi- 
ence of fifty years ago, — and in many rural districts this 
is still the case, — a speaker could look his audience over 
and, though all were personally strangers to him, he could 
name the list of countries and stocks from which their an- 
cestors came, and this would be the list : England, Ireland, 
Scotland, Wales, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Swit- 
zerland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Those twelve 
countries included the old homes of nine-tenths of the fam- 
ilies of America in 1867. Countries and peoples differed 



xii INTRODUCTION 

in detail, and each contributed its element of value to the 
" melting pot " in which the American stock was being 
fused. But in all these elements of population there was 
vastly more of similarity than of difference in the essential 
things. There was in all of them the possibility of Ameri- 
canism ; there was good, sound, healthy race stock on which 
could be grafted the ideas and the ideals that together make 
" America." There was, moreover, in all of them a devel- 
opment due to hundreds of years of race training through 
the great struggle in those lands toward freedom and the 
ideals which go to make up Americanism, and consequently 
the material for self-government was ready for the great ex- 
periment in the new land. The remarkable studies by Pro- 
fessor Edward A. Ross of the University of Wisconsin, 
published in the Century Magazine under the title, " The 
Effect of Immigration upon Race " (and since printed in 
book form), deal with this matter as the limits set by this 
chapter will not allow, and far more brilliantly and convinc- 
ingly than can be done by the present writer. 

Immigration has increased amazingly since that period 
and has gone on with little interruption until temporarily 
stopped by the present war. A million immigrants a year 
have been pouring into the country to become American 
citizens, — an addition of from one to two per cent, of for- 
eigners to the total population every year, and a much larger 
percentage when calculated upon the basis of adult male 
population. 

While all the countries named above are represented every 
year in the tide of immigration, their actual contributions, 
in most instances, and their proportion of the total in nearly 
every instance, have decreased. As we all know, this is 
largely owing to the fact that streams of immigrants have 
been coming in larger and progressively increasing numbers 
from countries and stocks very slightly represented in our 
earlier immigration. Italians, Austrians, Magyars, Bul- 
garians, Roumanians, Russians, Servians, Slovaks, Slove- 
nians, Ruthenians, Croatians, Bohemians, Poles, Lithua- 
nians, Finns, Greeks, Armenians, Syrians, Turks, even 
Arabs and Hindoos, — these are races represented increas- 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

ingly, and some of them in very large numbers, in the im- 
migration of the last half century. 

This change in immigration is bound to have a tremen- 
dous effect upon the character of the American race. The 
serious question arises what the effect will be upon Ameri- 
can ideals, institutions, and customs. 

This is a fair question and one that is not to be construed 
as a reflection upon any of these newer Americans or the 
lands from which they come. Just as there are manifest 
differences between the stocks that came from the twelve 
countries in the first list named above, so there are differ- 
ences between the peoples of the second list ; and an honest 
and impartial examination will convince the student that 
there are even more manifest and striking differences between 
the immigrants who come to our shores from these latter 
eighteen or twenty race stocks and those who came from 
the others. This certainty is true when one considers their 
preparation, historically and sociologically, for American 
citizenship and the likelihood that they will assist in preserv- 
ing and developing the ideals whose working out has pro- 
duced what we call " America." The writer believes that 
such a judgment will receive the support of any educated and 
fair-minded Italian or Russian or Pole or Greek or Magyar 
or representative of any other people who has studied Amer- 
ican institutions. At the same time each new-comer may 
point out and emphasize, as he should, the strong points 
of character in the people of his own race and may declare 
his optimistic belief in a glorious and manifest destiny for 
the new American that shall come out of this " melting 
pot," and with this optimism and this faith and this prophecy 
we have no quarrel. No man knoweth; the future is on 
the knees of the gods. We are learning more and more to 
make ourselves the intelligent and loyal instruments in the 
hands of Providence to fulfill the best of prophecy. " Kis- 
met " is comfortable as a solace in the face of trouble, but 
it belongs not to the Occidental mind. Rather do we, with 
reverence, say : " Our Father worketh hitherto, and we 
work." 

In view of the immense mass of unprepared material that 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

is coming into the digestive system of America, in view 
of a thousand changes in immigration, in transportation, 
and in political, sociological and economic conditions, in 
view of the great unrest of the last decade, we may, with- 
out deserving the charge of " little Americanism," inquire 
whether the tremendous change in the character, the pre- 
paredness, and the moving impulse of this later immigra- 
tion is not coming about so fast as to warn us of a real 
danger to free institutions. These institutions are still to 
undergo their greatest test, and to rouse us to do all that 
may be done to meet the situation and to solve the problem. 

In those last three words is the real challenge. We may 
talk of restricting immigration, but it is not likely to be done, 
— at least not as long as we are governed by political par- 
ties—unless, indeed, the great war stirs our lawmakers 
more than seems likely. No political party would seriously 
advocate any such restriction and attempt to make good such 
a plank in its platform, for the reason, narrow but potent, 
that the leaders of that party would be sure to lose the next 
election. The difficulty lies in the great American compla- 
cency, the feeling that Uncle Sam can not only " whip all 
creation," but can, on short notice, receive all comers and 
transform them without delay into intelligent, loyal Amer- 
ican citizens. The problem, therefore, is to do this very 
thing. And there is and must remain one chief factor in 
bringing about that longed for result, the making of the 
" oppressed of all the earth " into good American stock fit 
for self-government. It is the public school, which, in or- 
der to do its work with any hope of achievement, must have 
all the wealth that can be spared to it, all the wisdom of all 
the wise men, and all the devotion of all of us, more or less 
wise and all loyal. 

And here appears the connection between these two great 
changes in American life that have been coming about si- 
multaneously within the last half century, — simultaneously, 
;but seemingly with no possible relation to one other, — on 
the one hand the development of the public high school idea, 
the increase of fifty per cent, in the conception of the aver- 
age American citizen as to what he owes in the way of 



INTRODUCTION xv 

public free education to the boys and girls of the country ; 
on the other hand, the great change in the character of the 
prevalent immigration, with the possible and even probable 
change in the character of the race itself. 

If it be noble in man to rethink the thoughts of God, it 
may be right to conceive Him as viewing the great, new 
chosen land of opportunity and experiment, a land abound- 
ing in resource and energy and sifted stock, and deciding in 
His wisdom to give to that land two gifts. One gift is in the 
form of a burden, responsibility, millions of peasants from 
untrained races, from unfamiliar nooks and corners of the 
earth, from lands, some of them, with little of achievement 
in the world's history, all to be made over into a united 
people fit for self-government. The other gift is a change 
in American hearts, a broadening of vision, an increase in 
the conception of what an education means. Let us say 
that the Almighty has given us the raw immigrant with one 
hand, and, with the other, the American public school sys- 
tem, of which the most vital part is the American High 
School, a creation unique in all educational history, and 
that now He demands of us the wise and loyal use of one 
gift for the development of the other. 

With such a view, we cannot study with too great care, 
too great open-mindedness, or too great devotion the de- 
velopment and character of the American Public High 
School. 

John Calvin Hanna, 
State Supervisor of High Schools, Illinois. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

One of the most significant phenomena in secondary edu- 
cation of the present decade is the increase in literature on 
the High School. This is an indication that the most char- 
acteristic school in our system is beginning to receive the 
attention it merits as the determining factor in American 
education. All the current books however approach the 
matter principally from the hither side. Even the historical 
books, most of them devoted to noted individual schools, 
have described or discussed only the more modern phases 
of secondary education. These books however have ren- 
dered a distinct service on the historical side and make it 
unnecessary to take up the more recent epochs of the sec- 
ondary school with the same fulness required by earlier 
epochs. 

We need to approach the subject from both the near and 
the far side. The present book attempts to study the high 
school as an evolution. The author has placed himself in- 
side the facts and conditions of each epoch and has tried 
to interpret its spirit. This aids us materially in inter- 
preting the present. We are impressed in a new way with 
the principles of education, and, as we study the growth of 
means and ends and the modifications that have been made 
to meet religious, social, political, and industrial conditions 
as they have changed at different periods for more than 
thirty centuries, we gain new view-points for studying pres- 
ent problems and for adapting secondary education to new 
times. 

The author hopes he has written a book that cannot be 
characterized as doctrinaire, that he has succeeded in getting 
into the life of the secondary school and thus in adding to 
various chapters qualities of concreteness and reality. In 
the superintendence of public schools, in teaching and super- 

xvii 



xviii AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

vision in high school and academy, in the training of high 
school teachers in normal school and university department 
of education, and in supervision of and participation in the 
training of high school graduates for teaching in elementary 
schools, he has had opportunity to observe the work of the 
high school from various angles. His study has brought him 
into close sympathy with the education of the adolescent and 
has given him larger faith in its possibilities and a broad in- 
terest enhanced by the fact that his own boys are just entering 
or approaching the high school period. 

The author has also had special opportunities to make 
long and careful investigation of historic secondary educa- 
tion from many and varied sources, ancient and modern, 
primary and secondary. 

In gathering material he is under obligations for gener- 
ous responses by educators in all parts of the country who 
have furnished him with their latest high school programs 
of studies. He is under special obligations to Mr. John 
Calvin Hanna, Supervisor of High Schools of the State of 
Illinois, who has written the illuminating introduction, to 
Professor William Estabrook Chancellor, of the College of 
Wooster, who has read the manuscript and made valuable 
suggestions, and to Dr. Charles Hughes Johnston, of the 
University of Illinois, who has supplied an advance copy 
of the new terminology. For all who have thus assisted 
and encouraged him the author here records his warm ap- 
preciation and thanks. 

Prospect, Paterson, N. J., 

October 23, 19 16. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 

As adolescence is the central and determining period in human 
development, so the High School is the central and determin- 
ing school in our system of education. It is the key to the 
future development of the nation. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN PRIMITIVE TIMES 

The point of view. — If we are to have a comprehensive 
view of the evolution of educational forms, we must take as 
our starting point the ideas of tribes that nourished beyond the 
confines of recorded history. It is therefore the object of this 
first chapter to discover and examine the acquisitions of these 
primitive times and discover the means of transmitting and per- 
petuating them, i. e., the provisions for education. 

It is difficult to gain even a faint conception of prehistoric 
life and thought. If we can forget our modern modes of 
thought and shut our eyes to our surroundings, we may hope 
in some degree to realize the position of primitive peoples. We 
must get rid of our complexities, of our tendency to pass over 
steps in processes, — to eliminate in thought parts of a series 
and bring remote and near together. We must as far as pos- 
sible place ourselves at the point of view of these ancient tribes, 
bearing in mind that life, thought, and expression were very 
simple and moved by short stages; for industrial life, social 
organization, religious conceptions and feelings, and mental 
and physical life generally were just beginning, as far as their 
evolution in the human family is concerned. We must think 
even more simply and directly than do the plainest of modern 
men. 

Means of studying primitive times. — There is no highway 
for reaching prehistoric times, but there are several pathways. 
Again there is no body of definite information ready made, on 
which we may lay our hands after indefinite journeyings. Yet 
the people of these primitive times have left embedded in the 
strata of civilization, and sometimes in the soil they occupied, 
various evidences that, through inference and analogy, may be 

i 



2 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

used to make out a fragmentary story of their lives. Often 
some piece of their handiwork comes to view to give something 
more tangible as to their thought and action. In addition to 
this, habits of thought, customs, ideals, and forms and formulae 
in which their wisdom was condensed to make its transmission 
more secure, were handed on indefinitely. Some of them 
appear in faded outline, and sometimes in bold relief, in early 
historic peoples and serve, now as focusing points for investiga- 
tion, and again as guides along the paths to prehistoric times. 
Slowly, with unstinted effort, students have forced their way 
back and have been able to picture in general outline the move- 
ments and life of the earliest peoples, to tell their story, and to 
make plain their ideas and modes of doing things. 1 

Organization of primitive society. — The organization of 
primitive society was based on the family. The family grown 
large — the ancient clan and tribe — simply continued the 
characteristic family organization, modifying it enough to adapt 
it to a larger and more complex unit. Each family, clan, or 
tribe was an end in itself, an exclusive unit, looking on all out- 
side as strangers, and virtually as enemies. The " barbarian " 
of the Greeks and the " gentile " of the Hebrews are relics of 
this old organization and its attendant thought. The struggle 
of patricians and plebeians at Rome grew out of the same tribal 
solidarity. 

The bonds of union of this primitive society were blood and 
religion. 2 But these two bonds were really one, as they 
were different sides of the same central force. The primitive 
family unit and the series of subordinate units bound to it, as 
sons gained families of their own, 3 were indissolubly bound 
together and were subject to the many-sided power of the 
father of the central family. The father was legislator, magis- 
trate, priest, — the all-pervasive governing force of ' all. 4 
They looked up to him when alive ; they worshipped him when 
dead. He controlled their lives in life. In death he still pre- 

1 See Appendix I for a more specific description of sources. 

2 De Coulanges, Ancient City, 15, 16, 49-52, 174. See generally Book 
I and Book III : 1. 

3 Do., 149, 153; Von Ihering, Evolution of the Aryan, 32 ff. See 
Appendix II, 11. 

4 De Coulanges, op. cit, 112 ft., 116, 149, 153, 301, 302. 



PRIMITIVE TIMES 3 

sided over them; and it was one of their supreme objects to 
secure his favor. 5 The hearth worship, with its lares and 
penates, that figured so prominently in historical times, had its 
chief significance in this ancestor worship. The family in this 
broader sense also included various persons who were depend- 
ents in one degree or another. The family thus constituted 
what is called the clan. It had its own worship, its altar, its 
tomb, and its general organization, distinct from those of every 
other clan. 8 Altar and tomb were its centers. The clan 
was a compact and forceful group. The group prescribed and 
dominated; the individual was entirely subordinate; his life 
was the life of the group. 7 

Religious significance of acts. — From the very organization 
of early society it naturally resulted that every act and event 
had its religious significance, representing either the favor or 
the displeasure of the gods. 8 

Law an outgrowth of religion. — Even the ordinary rela- 
tions of life, finally included in political and civil law, had their 
ground and origin in the universal blood relationships, which, 
we have seen, were really religious ones. The law was, in an 
important sense, an outgrowth of religion. 9 

5 De Coulanges, Ancient City, 15, 16, 23, 24 ff., 44, 49. 

6 Do., op. cit., 149-153. 

7 Do., 49-52, 293-98, 301-302; Appendix 11:8, 11. 

€ Thus a multitude of forms and rites and their accompanying 
formulae arose to meet the varied acts of life, and to secure divine 
favor or ward off divine displeasure. Do., op. cit., 21 ff., 23 ff., 49, 
217 ff., 223 ff. ; Appendix II : 8. 

In the evolution of the state, religion became differentiated into dif- 
ferent departments, just as the father's power separated into various 
functions of government, each presided over by a separate functionary. 
Religion still dominated the whole life, however, as either a serious or 
an oppressive influence binding closely to forms and ceremonies, or as 
a joyful bond of life. 

In time religious influence became less dominant after the manner of 
primitive modes and types, and even became, at certain times and 
places, divorced from life to a greater or less extent. But the ideal 
still was that it should infuse life, giving it meaning and supplying 
and moulding ideals, though this infusion was entirely different in 
spirit, form, and attitudes from the earlier type. 

To family religion in course of time was added a more external re- 
ligion — worship of the powers of nature. The Roman came also to 
worship various deities representing abstract ideas that had special in- 
fluence with men — Virtus, Fides, etc. 

9 Do., op. cit., 248 ff. 



4 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

What then were the acquisitions that primitive peoples, under 
this simple and impressive organization, accumulated and must 
hand on? 

Acquisitions to be transmitted, i. Social and polit- 
ical. — From their organization itself social and political 
facts, and correlatively social and political forms, suggested 
and impressed themselves. Thence came tribal rules and cus- 
toms. Eventually laws developed. These things, with the 
more intimate tribal possessions, — its traditions, its rites, its 
relations and interrelations, its social feelings and bonds, — 
formed an important body of knowledge and sentiments to be 
transmitted. 10 

2. Tribal history. — Tribal and national history was 
forming 11 and was constantly outgrowing itself or modify- 
ing itself through race amalgamations and confederacies, and 
so was constantly becoming more intricate. 

3. Nature facts. — Again primitive man was face to face 
with nature, which suggested operations necessary for his liveli- 
hood and guided him in them. As he cooperated with nature 
to supply the needs of existence, various industrial facts and 
processes drew his attention and were impressed on his 
mind. 12 As peoples and experience grew, the field of 
knowledge grew correspondingly. Discoveries multiplied, and 
crude inventions suggested themselves. To simple nature- 
knowledge was in time added more complex and scientific 
knowledge. These acquisitions were not understood, but were 
grasped in a merely external and practical way. They were 
however vital and were prized accordingly. 

4. Religious facts. — These classes of facts and relations 

10 Hewitt, Ruling Races of Prehistoric Times, II : vii-xv, and preface 
generally, 1, 2, 87, 88, et passim. De Coulanges, op. cit., 149-153, 154-158, 
167-176, 248 ff., 301-2; Vedic Hymns, Mandalas I, 114; VII, 56; X, 78; 
Zend Avesta, Fargard 4; Seebohm, Tribal System of Wales, 64, 71, 87. 
The last author's English Village Community will also be interesting as 
indicating the strength of early customs and their relation to tribal integ- 
rity. Though referring to a much later time than the one we are con- 
sidering they illustrate in a general way the points here made. 

11 Hewitt, op. cit., I: xiv, 78-83; II: vii-xv, 306; Appendix II: 4. 

12 Hewitt, op. cit., I: xi, 7, 64; II: vii-xv, 1, 2; Vedic Hymns, Man. 
1 : 43, 165, 168 ; V : 54, 58, 61, etc. ; Zend Avesta, Fargards III, VII ; 
Appendix II : 3, 7. 



PRIMITIVE TIMES 5 

had to do with the visible. But primitive man was also face 
to face with forces that he could not see, but could merely 
feel, — with mystery, with spirit life, which we characterize as 
fetishistic. The relations and feelings thus impressed, added 
to those developed by family organization, were his religion. 
He must meet them in appropriate ways, — by acts and rites, 
by formula and sacrifice, by sacred dance, by symbol and 
altar. 13 Primitive awe, which was perhaps the starting 
point on this side of life, early grew into these simple and nat- 
ural forms. The dance is a constant element in primitive 
religion. Here was rhythm of body. On the other hand 
appears the rhythm of language in the hymn, 14 which was 
also an early development. Rhythm impressed and attracted. 
In fact it would be fair to say that rhythm in one form and 
another is one of the most fundamental modes of expression 
and meets with universal response. 

5. The physical. — The physical life 15 also expressed it- 
self in simple and natural modes, such impulsive and instinctive 
modes as children adopt. Here again the dance played a part, 
and games are as old as man, 

6. Art. — Finally a crude art was growing, taking the 
forms of symbols and rude representations. The starting 
point here was found in religious forms, as indicated by what 
has just been said. Primitive man was fond of the symbolic, 
and it appears again and again in line, circle, spiral, and rude 
figure. 16 Art grew apace. It was not long, measured by 
developmental epochs, before art came to serve practical and 
esthetic ideas by highly artistic forms. 17 

7. Tribal institutions. — In connection with these acqui- 
sitions there grew up certain organizations and institutions 
which focussed and enforced the characteristic knowledge of 
the community. Here came in religious ceremonies and festiv- 
als, all the social forms in which the social units expressed 

13 Hewitt, op. cit., I : x, xiv, xv, 78, 83 ; II : i, 2, 87, 88 ; Appendix, 
8, 10; Vedic Hymns, Man. I: 165, etc.; VII: 46; VIII: 7; Zend Avesta, 
Fargards III, VII, XIV. 

14 De Coulanges, op. cit., 49 ; Vedic Hymns, passim. 
is Do., Man., V:54. 14; V:s8; VIII : 20. 

is Do., Man., I: 134; V: 53, 54. 60; VI: 66, 
17 Ripley, Races of Europe, 486 ff. 



6 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

themselves, and all official programs connected with social and 
political organization. 18 

Primitive education. — Thus primitive man slowly accum- 
ulated a body of knowledge, beliefs, and forms. They were 
tested and approved by practical use, or enforced by instinct 
and the impressiveness and mystery of his surroundings, 
according as the point of view was that of landholding, liveli- 
hood and community existence, or that of the impingement of 
the spirit world. His experiences, as he faced the conditions 
of survival and progress, were intense, impressed by various 
labors and discomforts and by the joys of conquest that were 
involved in pioneering the way to guiding-facts of life. What 
he had gained was naturally held with great tenacity and per- 
petuated with great care. Its transmission was education. 

Transmission-forms. The myth. — The form which some 
of the most valued parts of this knowledge took was determined 
by primitive man's attitude toward the physical world. Nature 
appeared to him to be full of life, full of marvels. It thus 
inspired awe and superstition and confronted him with spirit 
everywhere. As he had constant dealings with these unseen 
and impressive forces, he must express himself about them, and 
he naturally spoke of them in terms of life. He readily per- 
sonified nature. Very early began a kind of folk-lore, which 
with us goes under the name of myth or legend but was serious 
fact to the inventors. Primitive ideas were naturally concrete 
and picturesque, for they followed primitive impulses. The 
myth was the natural form of expression, as natural for them 
as the exactness of narrative is for us, and it embodied truth 
for them as fully as our soberer narrations do for us. There 
was no self-deception, and no attempt to deceive others, — at 
least on the part of the masses who perpetuated the myth. 

Growth of myth. — We may trace the growth of myth, 
which in an important sense, as we have seen, was ancient his- 

18 As to the matter of primitive acquisitions generally see Hall, Old- 
est Civ. of Greece ; Ridgeway, Early Age of Greece ; Greenidge, Roman 
Pub. Life, (Chap. I, sections I, 3, 4, 5) ; Seebohm, The tribal Sys. of 
Wales, 64, 71, 87 ; Barton, Semitic Origins, 80 ff., 95, 98, 314-15, 317, et al. 
See also various references in Vedic Hymns and Zend Avesta. The 
various references will show something of the scope of acquisitions and 
various details. We are here chiefly concerned only with the general. 



PRIMITIVE TIMES 7 

tory, from the simple nature tale, through tribal and national 
tales, to the individual hero-tales of the Aryans, 19 with their 
infinite crossings and transfusions. In the development of this 
form of thought and expression special conservators of national 
myths arose, forming groups or classes, wjio, as our refer- 
ences show, were both directly and indirectly teachers. 20 Again 
special laws and forms of composition were developed to insure 
regularity and exactness. 21 

Hero-tales — Ballads. — Some of the most interesting ex- 
amples of this class of folk-lore are the rhythmic tales that 
describe the deeds of heroes and heroic tribes and nations. 22 
They were songs and ballads, which were natural means of oral 
transmission, appealing to fundamental instincts. We may 
trace the growth of ballad literature from simple form to grow- 
ing epic. In connection with the ballad we find the rhapsodist 
who developed this powerful instrument of information and 
education to a high degree of efficiency and spread ballad-lore 
assiduously. There were schools of rhapsodists to foster and 
develop this form of transmission. 

Proverbs, etc. — Along with the myth-growth various bits 
of practical wisdom were taking the form of adage and proverb 
that not only secured conciseness and the verbal exactness 
characteristic of the oral transmission of specially important 
facts in primitive times, but attracted attention and aided 
memory. 

Thus in connection with the various interests and rela- 
tions of clan life and the life which grew out of it there 
grew up a large body of folk-lore, — hero-tales, tales of national 
exploits and movements, songs and hymns, proverbs and 
maxims, formulae (religious and legal, or better religio-legal), 
and religious calendars, all of which were to become the posses- 
sion of the true clansman or tribesman. 23 

19 Hewitt, op. cit., I: xi, xiv, 7, 76-83, 86, 519, 521 ff., 539 ff., 556 ff. ; 
II: vii-xv, 89 ff., 306; Appendix II: 3, 4, 7. 

20 Story tellers, etc., in different nations. 

21 Hewitt, op. cit., I : xi, xiv, xv, 81 ; II : vii-xv, 306 ; Appendix II : 

3, 4, 7. 

22 Hero tales were a later development than tales of national ex- 
ploits. 

23 De Coulanges, op. cit., 23, 24, 29-31, 49, 52, 210, 223, 226, 248; 
Vedic Hymns, Man. VII : 56; V: 59, et al; Miiller's Preface to first ed. 



8 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Relics of this folklore, particularly the ballad and the epic. 

— Many fragments of this folk-lore have come down to us, 
sometimes with various accretions gathered through the ages, 
sometimes embedded in larger and more modern creations, 
sometimes transformed, but sometimes again with little or no 
change or obscuration. Vedic hymns, the Zend Avesta, the 
XII Tables, and the Laws of Manu give us valuable informa- 
tion as to the thought and ideals of remote ages. Particularly 
interesting here are the great national epics that have grown 
out of the wealth of ballad literature of still earlier ages, when 
the ballad was the natural mode of literary expression. Thus 
we have the Ramayana and Mahabharata of India, the Iliad 
and Odyssey of Greece, and later epics giving corresponding 
revelations of later peoples, — the Shah Nameh of Persia, the 
Kalevala of the Finns, the Niebelungenlied and Beowulf of 
the Teutons, and the French Song of Roland. These epics 
not only give us insight into the life of the time, but they sug- 
gest one of the most powerful educational forces. 

Forms of education. — We now see something of the en- 
vironment of the prehistoric boy. His training, whether nat- 
ural or artificial, consisted in giving him power over this 
environment through possession of the knowledge-acquisitions 
of his race and through practice. What particularly interests 
us here, however, is the special form that this training took. 
Here we are met by three typical questions : — What was the 
end in view? How may we formulate the curriculum for the 
sake of comparison with those of other epochs? What was 
the method of training? The brief sketch which is here given/ 
the marginal references, and the illustrations in the appendix 
will give some answer to these questions. It is true that the 
use of these modern terms, end, curriculum, method, may seem 
anachronous, but rudiments of the ideas which they represent 
are found in primitive times. More than this, it would seem 
that these early peoples had quite as clear an idea of these 
things as we have. 

Ideal and aim. — The ideal in primitive education, as in all 

of Vedic Hymns CXI; Zend Avesta, Fargards I, II, etc.; Hewitt, 
op. cit., I: x, xiv, xv, 7, 63, 76, 78 ff., ill, 540, 541, etc.; II: vii-xv, I, 2, 
89 ff; Appendix II: 3, 4, 8, 10, etc. 



PRIMITIVE TIMES 9 

education, was a reflex of life, but without the vital force 
which projected life into a fuller future. The social unit was 
a powerful one, and impressed itself and its ideas on the indi- 
vidual who had little power of initiative, little power to reject, 
to add, to carry forward. 24 The tribe was everything, the indi- 
vidual nothing, absorbed by the overshadowing organization 
that alone had significance. " The dewdrop slips into the 
shining sea, " or rather into the sea, for destiny was not ideal- 
ized. Under these circumstances the possessions of the race 
were given over, immutable, to the individual. He must accept 
them exactly. Every syllable, every detail, was essential. 
Nothing that the race had wrought must slip. The ideal was 
then emphatically in the present. Power to idealize and gen- 
eralize had not yet come. Knowledge was empirical. Men 
dealt with unrelated details rather than an organized body of 
facts. The aim was to conserve the tribe and all it stood for. 
The race must progress en masse, so to speak, with painfully 
slow progress. The lines were evidently clearly drawn, the 
limits clearly defined. Primitive man was thus the most con- 
servative of beings. Opportunities to modify and advance 
ideals were few and perhaps depended chiefly on cataclysmic 
experiences of conquest and amalgamation. Progress under 
these conditions would be an accident, a chance discovery, not 
an organized force based on active individual effort. Society 
was static, not dynamic. Such was the ideal, and the educa- 
tional aim accorded with it. 

Curriculum. — When we come to analyze education and 
determine what we may well call the curriculum, we may make 
some such outline as the following: 

1. Industrial facts : — Simple and primitive occupations. Practi- 
cal facts gained through experience and treasured by older men 
(embodied in proverbs, etc.). 

2. Social and political facts: — Facts and inheritances (customs, 
beliefs, etc.) as to organization of family, tribe, etc. Simple civic 
arrangements and regulations of community life. 

3. Religious facts: — General religious facts (animistic) — Fam- 
ily religion (ancestor-worship). All characterstic religious cere- 
monies and ritual. Religion an all pervasive force, inspiring joy, 
sadness, awe, fear. 

24 De Coulanges, op. cit., 293 ; Appendix II : 12. 



io THE HIGH SCHOOL 

4. Folk-lore : — Songs, ballads, tales or stories, from simple 
nature story, through race-story, to individual hero tales (myth or 
legend a modern name for these). Symbolical language sometimes 
used. The rhythmic element here should be noticed especially. 

5. Art: — Rude representations of objects and symbols of wor- 
ship. Devices on the same. Stone-circles, altars, etc., on sacred 
grounds carefully marked out for ceremonies. 

6. Number: — Simple concrete facts (treated more fully in 
Chapter II). 

7. Nature facts: — Much practical knowledge accumulated by 
the race and handed on with great accuracy and care. 

8. Physical facts: — Dances; physical training incident to com- 
mon life. 

Method. — As to method, in an age when formal schools 
did not exist the means of gaining power over one's environ- 
ment were the natural ones that lay open to all, — observation, 
imitation, play, participation (or practice). In this connection 
it should be noted that much of the folk-lore to which reference 
has been made was in rhythmic form that appeals to one of the 
most fundamental feelings, so fundamental that one may call 
it an instinct. Rhythm thus stimulates attention and aids 
memory. As a considerable part of the acquisitions of the 
community was thus included in the folk-lore, rhythmic inherit- 
ances naturally became most powerful educational material, 
and rhythm became a part of method. Again the tribal rites 
and festivals and the folk-lore recitals connected with them 
impressed ritual and history. Equally important as a means of 
instruction were the exhibitions given by the wandering bards 
who were characteristic of later prehistoric times and instructed 
while they delighted, and largely because they delighted, by 
rhythmic tales of national or individual prowess. 

Rote learning. — But there was another element of early 
method that needs notice. A part of the knowledge of the 
community was regarded as more vital than the rest. It had 
cost much. It must be condensed into special forms and handed 
on without alteration. 25 There was a taboo against any change. 
This part of race inheritance sometimes called for special 
secrecy. It was deposited in symbolic characters, so that a spe- 

25 Hewitt, op. cit., I : x, xi, 64, 74, 76-83, 134 ff. ; II : ix, xi, 306. See 
the same author's Prim. Trad. Hist., 1 : 97, and Appendix II : 3, 4. 
Material for the training of adolescents was the object of great care. 



PRIMITIVE TIMES n 

cial language arose in dealing with it. Some of the most com- 
mon forms it assumed were the proverb and myth, which were 
suited to the habits of thought of the people and, besides, were 
very convenient means of handing on valuable knowledge. In 
imparting this kind of knowledge the simplest and most natural 
method for an unreflecting people was rote-learning — mechan- 
ically committing to memory with no natural incentive to relieve 
it. It was admirably suited to forms that must remain inviol- 
able. The descendants of rote schools and rote teachers are 
found to-day in the native schools of India and China. 26 

Oral and written language. — How early oral tradition was 
reinforced by written language as a means of transmission is 
not known. The date has gradually been pushed back, and 
now there is serious question whether a simple written language 
did not exist as early as the stone age. 27 However early it may 
have been developed, it is doubtful whether it was taught to 
young boys under fifteen or eighteen, because at first that which 
was committed to writing was probably the most sacred knowl- 
edge of the tribe. 

Evolution of means of transmission. — As nations and ac- 
quisitions grew the process of transmission became more exact- 
ing and complex and more formal. We may roughly outline 
its growth from the most primitive form as follows: i° A 
period when the child was left largely to himself and gained 
by the natural means first noted what the community had to 
offer. 2° A period when parents exercised more care and 
surveillance, showing and guiding and more consciously taking 
children into their life. An interesting phase of this is seen in 
the matriarchal Dravidian village community. Hewitt tells of 
the children taught by the elders (uncles) and matrons (aunts) 
of the tribe 28 the rules resulting from a long series of experi- 

26 Hewitt, op. cit., 1 : 63. — See also Appendix II : 13. Aside from 
rote teaching that perhaps began with mere boys at this time, as it 
certainly did later, there was no formal school. Young children could 
gain all they were expected to learn by the most natural and in- 
formal means. Formal educational institutions for children arose very 
late. 

27 Ripley, op. cit, 486. 

28 Hewitt, op. cit., I: xi, 157; II: 1, 2; Appendix, 7. In each com- 
munity, because of exogamous marriage customs, all men and women 
of the tribe were brothers and sisters. 



12 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

ments or experiences forming their science of agriculture. To 
prevent error in transmission the rules were put in attractive 
form and " carefully repeated by each generation after the 
teachers till indelibly impressed." 29 3° A period when the 
community made its elders more or less definitely into super- 
visors or conservators of community interests as related to the 
perpetuation of community ideals. Very early, " in Kushika 
times, we find developed the system of education of which the 
practical physical education of Persia and Sparta were relics. 30 
Here was the origin of common meals. Here began the cus- 
tom of regarding the child as belonging to the state, and of 
bringing the new born child to the elders to determine whether 
he was to be reared or not." 31 4 A period of guilds, when 
society was more fully organized industrially, so that a boy 
could serve apprenticeship in a trade-guild. 32 This was class 
education that, under favorable conditions, developed into caste 
education, as under the Aryans in India. Guild-education 
began very early. 5 A period where society had grown com- 
plex enough to set aside special teachers, or groups of teachers, 
priests or laymen, to take charge of the education of children. 33 
Secondary training distinctive. — But now comes the ques- 
tion, was there any distinction as to age, or was the older boy's 
education simply a continuation of the training of the child in 
the various lines noted ? Here we come upon some of the most 
interesting points connected with prehistoric education. All 
the inheritances and acquisitions to which reference has been 
made were not alike. Some were more sacred and secret than 

29 The first education seems to have been practical, and naturally 
so. Hewitt, op. cit., 1 : 63 ; Appendix, 3 ; Hewitt, Primitive Traditional 
History, I: 65-66. 

80 Hewitt, op. cit., 1 : 63 ; Appendix, II : 5. 

31 Hewitt, op. cit., 1 : 297, 298, 410. Here again was the origin of 
the marriage customs and dual government of Sparta, showing the 
close connection of influential elements of Spartan population with 
eastern tribes. 

32 Do. I: in; Appendix, II: 5, 6. 

33 Hewitt, op. cit., I : xiv, 76. Speaking of primitive tribes he tells 
of village priest-teachers and women-prophetesses who became the 
national Asipu, the diviners, who not only were repositories of the 
past, but were also augurs and foretellers who interpreted the flight 
of birds and the movements of their entrails. They were the ancestors 
of the augurs of Rome and other priestly classes. 



PRIMITIVE TIMES 13 

others. There was a kind of esoteric element in primitive 
knowledge accumulations. Some facts must be guarded more 
carefully, lest tribal well-being be broken. Some things must 
be absolutely safeguarded from enemies, i. e., all outside the 
clan or tribe circle, lest one tribe get some sinister advantage 
over another. These and other acquisitions must not be risked 
with children. They required an age which could be not only 
tenacious, but secretive. This is the adolescent age. 

Evidence of distinctive training for the adolescent. — 
There is thus strong presumption that there was a distinction 
in education and that this distinction showed itself, not by 
differences in degree and amount simply, but by differences in 
kind, both in matter and method. There is not only presump- 
tion; there is evidence. i° There are certain customs found 
in historic times, undoubtedly relics of earlier centuries or ages, 
that point to such a distinction as has been indicated. 
2 There are some hints in the early literature of the Aryans. 
3 There is still stronger evidence found in primitive tribes 
of to-day who are still untouched by modern civilization and 
well represent, in their customs, modes of thought, and atti- 
tudes, the childhood of races. The tribes thus present charac- 
teristics that may well have ruled in prehistoric days. Putting 
all the evidence together we are justified in saying that the 
training of the adolescent differed impressively from that of the 
child. First, there was a more conscious aim and it was better 
defined. Second, the community organized itself for a more 
definite training, prescribed certain forms, and, through charac- 
teristic ceremonies, gave a peculiar force to the adolescents 
education that was lacking in that of the child. 34 Here came 
in "initiation" ceremonies, (naturally religious), and severe 
physical tests that often extended to body markings. 35 We 
may summarize this secondary training therefore briefly as 
follows : 36 

34 De Coulanges, op. cit., 46, 67, 68, 157, 169, 170; Zend Avesta, 
Fargard IX (Introd), Fargard XVIII, 1 : 9; Appendix, II: 9, 14. 

35 These latter should probably be regarded as originally totemistic 
rather than as physical tests. This makes them at once more primitive 
and significant. They will be considered more fully in the next chapter. 

36 Fuller details are reserved for discussions that belong more prop- 
erly in other chapters. (See II, III, IV.) 



i 4 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Summary of the training of adolescents. — The training 
of the adolescent naturally proceeded in part along the same 
lines as that of the child. He was getting more extended and 
fuller knowledge of the life of the tribe in its various directions. 
He was acquiring more power over his environment and the 
operations of life. But there was something beyond this. The 
choicest or most characteristic parts of the acquisitions of the 
race, the more secret or mysterious bits of knowledge, the more 
sacred traditions and legends, the more strenuous physical 
facts, were reserved for the adolescent and were applied to 
the young men by the elders of the tribe amid impressive cere- 
monies. 

Secondary school as old as man. — There was, therefore, a 
kind of secondary education laid out in rather definite fashion. 
Ends were conscious and means well organized. The second- 
ary school is therefore, in a sense, as old as man. The high 
school is the primitive school modernized. This will appear 
more fully as we proceed. 

APPENDIX I 

i. The Aryans. — Not many decades ago the most interesting and im- 
portant part of the investigation of primitive civilization was to seek 
out in the highlands of Central Asia the cradle of the race that made 
Southern Europe, study civilization at this center, trace the two lines 
of diffusion to the East and West, and, again study the two branches 
of the western migration on European soil. Then the Aryans played 
a leading role in the development of early civilization. To-day their 
movements form a secondary episode in the early, though not in the 
earliest, ethnology of Europe. 

2. Notes on sources.-— The following notes on some of the sources 
as they appear to the author may be of some interest : 

(a) Hewitt, in his Ruling Races of Prehistoric Times, gives us 
especially valuable and suggestive data for our purpose. He shows 
us the primitive Dravidians with their primitive organization, the ma- 
triarchal village community, and the Dravidians, or Dravidian amal- 
gamations, moving westward and spreading their peculiar land cus- 
toms and their civic and religious forms that made the foundation 
of the later Greek and Roman states, and other states as well. It 
is becoming evident that the basal element of European civilization 
of the South and West was not the Aryans, but other peoples pressing 
on from the East. To these peoples, it would seem, were due the ele- 
ment of law, the conditions that made for settled government and 



PRIMITIVE TIMES 15 

industrial development, and the peculiar formalism found in the Roman 
religion. So interesting and full of detail is Hewitt's work that one 
is tempted to give more data than are essential for our purpose. 

(b) Ripley, in his Races of Europe, has effectively sifted and 
organized the results of many investigators and has given us a detailed 
and careful anthropological description of the three fundamental races 
of Europe. His suggestions as to origins are fairly consistent with 
those of Hewitt. While his primary purpose is anthropological, he 
gives us some useful details as to modes of life and acquisitions, par- 
ticularly in his later chapters. 

(c) De Coulanges, in his Ancient City, has given us a most bril- 
liant piece of work and specially valuable for getting at the points of 
view and organization of early society. His aim is rather psychological 
and sociological than strictly ethnological. His picture of the organiza- 
tion and culture of the prehistoric community is peculiarly vivid. 
While his study applies particularly to the fundamental features in the 
civilization of the classical states, which he probably conceived to be 
Aryan, it gives much of value in the study of any primitive civiliza- 
tion, and has been used as generally applicable in a broad sense. 

(d) Other sources more or less valuable are noted on page 6. Still 
others are reserved for two special chapters which follow. 



APPENDIX II 

3. Primitive knowledge and the method of transmitting it. Old 
folk-lore and its modern counterparts. — "The first founders of na- 
tional education were an agricultural race, and the lessons they had 
to teach their young pupils were not the rules of the art of war, or 
the mysteries of religion, but those which embodied the results at- 
tained by the long series of experiments which had formed a national 
science of agriculture. To enable these lessons to be transmitted from 
generation to generation in a form which secured them from distortion 
they were embodied in mythic tales which were carefully repeated by 
each generation of scholars after their teacher till they became indelibly 
impressed on their memory. Every one who has listened to Hindu 
scholars repeating their lessons after their master will understand how 
this was done, and it is to this systematic training of the memory 
that we owe innumerable works which have descended to us in 
Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit literature." — Hewitt, 1 : 63. 

4. " But when national education was looked upon, as it was amongst 
the Kushites, as one of the most important tasks of internal policy, 
and it was found necessary to improve and disseminate more widely 
than had hitherto been done the knowledge of the history of the 
country and of the results acquired by scientific research, these were 
all embodied in myths framed on the model of the seasonal myths 
which formed the folk-tales of the villagers, these being almost all 
based on the recurrence of the seasons, the most important subject of 



16 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

knowledge to a people whose living- was gained by the culture of plants, 
which could only be properly carried on when the land was prepared, 
the seed sown, the fields weeded, and the crops reaped and stored in 
the proper seasons. It is the story of the seasons which is told in the 
numerous stories of the three brothers, the youngest of whom, the 
reaper of the harvest, is alone successful in his quest; and it is they 
which appear in the Cinderella myth and its variants. ... It is this 
mythical method of recording the movements of time which appears also 
in the story of the Briar Rose or Sleeping Beauty. It is tales like 
these which have always been from time immemorial the favorite modes 
of teaching among all the races who have successively ruled India." 
— Hewitt, 1:78-79. 

" It is Sanskrit fairy tales which form the substratum of our Eu- 
ropean stories ; and no one who has heard, as I have done, the fairy 
stories of my youth told by a wild Gond in the forests of Sehawa, at 
the sources of the Mahunuddy in Chuttisgurh, can ever doubt that 
these stories were originally conceived by the myth-makers of the 
most primitive tribes in the earliest dawn of civilization. The stories 
my Gond guide told me could never have reached his tribe from 
Northern infiltration in historic times, for I was probably the second, 
if not the first, European he or his people had ever seen; for, as far 
as I could make out, I was the second European who was ever 
known to have visited this wild and remote tract. ... It was apparently 
these people who first formed the skeleton foundations on which 
later stories were founded, and, being a most practical people, they 
made them in such a way as to convey valuable instruction in an 
interesting and easily retained form. Having, like all nations with 
strong Malay affinities, such as the Chinese, Burmese, and Bengalis, 
vivid dramatic instincts, and being also, like the Bengalis, great 
makers of pithy proverbs, they easily and naturally turned these into 
stories which seemed to be tales told of individuals, and in dramatiz- 
ing these, either in the story or in mimic action, they made the key- 
notes of the proverbs the names of the actors in the plot. When 
these stories were transferred from the village school and the village 
meetings in the Akra or dancing-place to the guardianship of the 
royal advisers and were made the groundwork of national history 
they were protected from alteration by the same taboo which forbade 
all tampering with the national ritual." — Hewitt, 1 : 80-81. 

5. Method of education with comparisons. — "In order to insure 
the permanence of their national traditions the Kushikas insisted most 
strongly on the systematic instruction and education of the young, 
and they used as their model the Dravidian arrangements for the 
training of the village children of the matriarchal village. By this 
systematic method of education the lives of all the younger members 
of the community were passed in a course of discipline of which 
the Spartan education, descended from the tribal ancestors of the 
Dorians, is the best specimen. I have shown . . . how closely the 



PRIMITIVE TIMES 17 

Dorian customs are allied to those of the Indian Nagas, and the 
remembrance of these national training-schools still survives in the 
schools of the Brahmans among the Hindus, in the Greek and Roman 
education, and in that of the ancient Persians or Parthians. They, like 
their brethren, the Parthian cavalry of India, were taught to ride, 
to shoot the bow, and to speak the truth." — Hewitt, 1:63. (See also 
pp. 297, 298.) 

6. " It was they (the Aryans) who changed the system of trade- 
guilds and craft-schools, formed under the Kushite government for 
preserving and adding to the knowledge necessary for the continu- 
ance and advancement of the crafts of the country, into family circles 
in which every one remained through life a member of the caste in 
which he was born, instead of being, as people were in Kushite times, 
free to enter any other caste to which their inclinations led them, if 
they could, as in the ancient village, secure the consent of the mem- 
bers of the guild to their admittance. Thus this Aryan family system 
had its roots in the old customs of the country." — Hewitt, I: in. 

7. Early folk-lore agricultural.—-" In every village the rising gen- 
eration was trained by their mothers and maternal uncles, and it was 
from the teaching instincts thus developed that the folk-tale and the 
national proverbs which are as ubiquitous as the folk-tale, originated. 
An analysis of the earliest of these stories, which do not profess to 
be historical, will show that almost all of them are connected with 
the explanation of natural phenomena, and that they generally are 
the product of the brains of agricultural or hunting races who had 
keen mercantile instincts. . . . Some are too manifestly nature-myths, 
telling of the course of the year, a subject of vital importance to the 
farming tribes." (The tale of Demeter and Persephone and that of 
the Sleeping Beauty are given as Northern descendants of these 
myths.) — Hewitt I : xi. 

8. Family and clan. Their bonds of union. — "We find in each 
house an altar, and around this altar the family assembled. The fam- 
ily meets every morning to address its first prayers to the sacred 
fire, and in the evening to invoke it for a last time. In the course 
of the day the members are once more assembled near the fire for 
the meal, of which they partake piously after prayer and libation. 
In all these religious acts, hymns which their fathers have handed 
down are sung in common by the family." 

" Outside the house, near at hand, in a neighboring field, there is a 
tomb, the second home of this family. There several generations of 
ancestors repose together; death has not separated them. They re- 
main grouped in this second existence and continue to form an indis- 
soluble family." 

" The members of the ancient family were united by something more 
powerful than birth, affection, or physical strength; this was the re- 
ligion of the sacred fire and of dead ancestors. This caused the family 
to form a single body both in this life and in the next. The ancient 



18 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

family was a religious rather than a natural association. Religion, 
it is true, did not create the family, but certainly it gave the family 
its rules." — De Coulanges, 49~52. 

9. Initiation. — "A sort of initiation was also required for the son, 
as we have seen it was for the daughter. This took place a short 
time after birth, the ninth day at Rome, the tenth in Greece, the 
tenth or twelfth in India. On that day the father assembled the 
family, assembled witnesses, and offered a sacrifice to his fire. The 
child was presented to the domestic gods ; a female carried him in 
her arms and ran, carrying him, several times around the sacred fire 
(to purify and to initiate into the domestic worship). From this 
moment the infant was admitted into this sort of sacred society or 
small church that was called the family. He possessed its religion, 
he practiced its rites, he was qualified to repeat its prayers ; he honored 
its ancestors, and at a later period he would himself become an honored 
ancestor." — De Coulanges, 67, 68. 

10. Forms of religion and their rise. — " When we sought the most 
ancient beliefs of these men, we found a religion which had their dead 
ancestors for its object and for its principal symbol the sacred fire. . . . 
But this race has also had in all its branches another religion, the one 
whose principal figures were Zeus, Here, Athene, Juno, — that of the 
Hellenic Olympus and the Roman Capitol." 

" Of these two religions the first found its gods in the human soul, 
the second took them from physical nature. As the sentiment of 
living power and of conscience, which he felt in himself, inspired man 
with the first idea of the divine, so the view of this immensity which 
surrounded and overwhelmed him traced out for his religious senti- 
ment another course." 

" Man, in the earlier ages, was continually in the presence of nature. 
The habits of civilized life did not yet draw a line between him and it. 
. . . His life was in the hands of nature. . . . He experienced perpetu- 
ally a mingled feeling of veneration, love, and terror for this power of 
nature. . . . On first looking on the external world man pictured it to 
himself as a sort of confused republic where rival forces made war upon 
each other. As he judged external objects from himself, and felt 
in himself a free person, he saw also in every part of creation, in the 
soil, in the tree, in the cloud, in the water of the river, in the sun, 
so many persons like himself. He endued them with thought, volition, 
and choice of acts. As he thought them powerful and was subject to 
their empire he avowed his dependence; he invoked them and adored 
them; he made gods of them." 

"Thus in this race the religious idea presented itself under two 
different forms. On the one hand man attached the divine attribute 
to the invisible principle, to the intelligence, to what he perceived of 
the soul, to what of the sacred he felt in himself. On the other 
hand he applied his ideas of the divine to the external object which 



PRIMITIVE TIMES 19 

he saw, which he loved or feared; to physical agents which were the 
masters of his happiness and of his life." 

"These two orders of belief laid the foundation of two religions 
that lasted as long as Greek and Roman society. They did not make 
war upon each other; they even lived on very good terms, and shared 
the empire over man; but they never became confounded." — De Cou- 
langes, 1 59-1 61. 

11. Solidarity of family. — "Certainly we could imagine nothing 
more solidly constituted than this family of the ancient ages which 
combined within itself its gods, its worship, its priest, and its magis- 
trate" (the father combined the functions of the last two func- 
tionaries). "There could be nothing stronger than this city which 
also had in itself its religion, its protecting gods, and its independent 
priesthood, which governed the soul as well as the body of man, and 
which, infinitely more powerful than the states of our day, united 
in itself the double authority that we now see shared between the 
state and the church. If any society was ever established to last, it 
was certainly that." — De Coulanges, 299. 

A divergent view. — Von Ihering ("Evolution of the Aryan," page 
32 ff.) rejects the thought of the compact continuance of the family and 
of filial affection as applied to the Aryan. He holds that the elder 
son soon deposed the father and that offerings to the dead were 
made through fear. At the same time he believes that the Romans 
were an exception and that among them the father retained his place. 
In fact the Romans illustrate in great detail the matters summarized 
above. — De Coulanges holds them as characteristic of the Aryans gen- 
erally. 

12. Individual and community. — "There was nothing independent 
in man; his body belonged to the state; ... his fortune was at the 
disposal of the state; private life did not escape the omnipotence of 
the state." — De Coulanges, 293. 

13. Reference to teaching in Zend Avesta. — Special references to 
teacher, learning, method. " If men of the same faith, either friends 
or brothers, come to an agreement together that one may obtain from 
another either goods, or a wife, or knowledge ... let him who wants 
to have knowledge be taught the holy word. He shall learn on during 
the first part of the day and the last, during the first part of the 
night and the last, that his mind may be increased in knowledge and 
wax strong in holiness; so shall he sit up giving thanks and praying 
to the gods, that he may be increased in knowledge . . . and thus shall 
he continue until he can say all the words which former JEthrapaitis 
have said." Fargard IV, ii e. (The customary method of early times 
seems to be referred to. There is also indication of contract in teach- 
ing.) 

14. Ceremonies peculiar to adolescence. — There are also some 
references, or rather some notes, as to a special ceremony for the 



20 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

adolescent. "The nine nights" Barashnum "is the great purifica- 
tion, the most efficacious of all; its performance was prescribed, once 
at least at the time of the Nu Zudi (at the age of fifteen when the 
young Parsi becomes a member of the community), in order to wash 
away the natural uncleanness." — Fargard IX, introductory note. 

The Kosti, " worn by every Parsi man or woman from their fifteenth 
year of age, ... is the badge of the faithful, the girdle by which he is 
united both with Ormazd and with his fellow believers. . . . He who 
wears it becomes a participator in the merit of all the good deeds 
performed all over the Zarathusian world." Miiller proceeds to de- 
scribe the curious nature of the Kosti. Note to Fargard XVIII, 1 : 9. 



J 



II 

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN PRIMITIVE TRIBES TO-DAY 

From this description of primitive education that is immeas- 
urbaly remote from us in time, as well as in its evolutionary 
position, we come to a consideration of a primitive education 
which touches us in time, but is as remote as the other in its 
evolutionary character. 

Sources of information. — Various primitive tribes to-day 
either have been untouched by modern civilization, or have 
been so little affected that their primitive customs can be easily 
discovered. They thus give us much insight into prehistoric 
life, as they represent a similar stage of development. This 
chapter will therefore reinforce important parts of the first 
chapter and will add new elements. If it repeats somewhat, it 
does so from new view-points, — first from view-point of actual 
observers, second from that of new tribes. 

These tribes which are to be considered represent various 
grades of civilization, all of which may be called primitive, but 
we need not differentiate, except in certain particulars that will 
be evident in the course of discussion. As this is not a study 
in anthropology or ethnology we are concerned only with such 
details as bear particularly on the matter of training that the 
community supplied for its children. 

Acquisitions and inheritances. — The most primitive peo- 
ples with which we are concerned here have advanced slightly 
beyond the tribal stage to a loose organization, seen in the meet- 
ings of elders from different tribes to consider general inter- 
ests. 1 Other tribes have developed ideas of more definite 
organization, — ideas of nationality, generally of monarchical 
type. In industrial lines we find the simplest pursuits, whether 

1 Appendix, 2, 5 ; Spencer and Gillen, Native tribes of Central Aus- 
tralia, 272. See also the same author's Northern Tribes, 24, 27, 70. 

21 



22 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

in the domain of agriculture or that of handicrafts. 2 In rudi- 
mentary science we find, first, simple number ideas 3 that may 
be best understood by reference to two or three typical number 
systems. The most rudimentary type seems to be that in which 
there are no special names for numbers, simply group names, so 
that reckoning is by " hand " ; (a hand = 5 ; 2 hands = 
10) ; by " man " (2 hands + 2 feet = 20) , etc. 4 The next type 
seems to be that in which they have special names for the first 
three numbers and by repetition and combination reach five or 
six and then use the devices given above with the aid of the 
special expressions. A third type would include more special 
names or a higher counting capacity (say, 200, 300, etc.), or 
both. The counting power is sometimes steadied and enforced 
by means of tallies (notches in sticks, knobs, sticks in sand, 
etc.). Everything therefore is concrete, as might be ex- 
pected. The abstract is beyond the menal grasp of primitive 
man. 

Knowledge of nature and the healing art. — Under the 
head of rudimentary science should also be included their obser- 
vations of nature that were many and accurate, 5 and the be- 
ginnings of the medical art, 6 with its magic and supersti- 
tion. 

Religion. — In religion we find animism and fetishism 
widespread. 7 One of the most fundamental and striking 
forces in religion is the totem, 8 from which a whole system of 
totemic religion has grown. Naturally, with their crude ideas, 
superstition and magic arts also appear as a part of their re- 
ligion. But we also find definite ideas of gods apart from the 
totemic system, at least in certain places, and a belief in a future 
existence. In connection with all this they have a wealth of 

2 See Ratzel, History of Mankind ; Featherman, Social History of the 
Races of Mankind ; Letourneau, L'Evolution de L'Education. 

8 Appendix 10. Letourneau, op. cit., 134. 

4 All this indicates that number development was originally digital. 

* See Hewitt, op. cit., Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 24-26, and books on 
primitive tribes generally. 

6 Letourneau, op. cit., 155', 234. 

7 Appendix 1; Ratzel, op. pit, 11:353, 355-357, 481,' Featherman, 
op. cit., I: 16 1-2; Spencer and Gillen, op. cit. 123, 124, 138, 310, 311; 
Letourneau, op. cit., 141, 142. 

8 See Appendix I. 



PRIMITIVE TRIBES 23 

religious legends (history to them), and religious ceremonies 
and ritual. 9 

Folk-lore. — Folk-lore there is in abundance. 10 One de- 
partment of it has just been referred to. We also find 
proverbs, aphorisms, riddles, fables, general legends, astronom- 
ical fables and myths, myths concerning gods, beast-legends, 
war-songs, hero-tales, and tales that point to migrations and 
amalgamations. 11 In this connection reference should be made 
also to pantomimes and burlesques, 12 of which primitive peoples 
seem fond. The wandering minstrel reinforces local story- 
tellers 13 in the transmission of the mass of stories that this list 
suggests. But he is not always the honored guest we find 
him among the Greeks. Featherman, in his account of African 
races, tells us of " wandering musicians who dress up in fan- 
tastic style, put on all the emblematic mummeries of magic art, 
and recite in recitative strain all the incidents of their travels, 
but are looked upon with despite as selling charms for hire. " 14 
However, we may not have here a real " minstrel " correspond- 
ing in function to the rhapsodist ; but the latter is found among 
primitive peoples. 

Art. — Rudimentary art is very conspicuous among these 
tribes. Their interest in graphic expression is instinctive. 15 
The necessity of expressing themselves finds this one of the 
simplest and most natural means, as it gives them some of the 
simplest and most suggestive symbols. They thus readily prac- 
tice drawing and carving, but in a limited field, for they have a 
predilection for figures of animals and men ; a landscape passes 
their comprehension. In some cases they have made great 
progress in design and show real artistic sense. 

9 Appendix 2, 3, 5, 7 ; Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 145, 229-30, 323-24, 
and generally Chapters VII-VIII. 

10 Appendix 10; Featherman, op. cit., I: 355-56; Ratzel, op. cit., II: 
276-279, 327, 480; Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 145, 229-30, 310, 311, et 
passim; Letourneau, op. cit., 119, 135, 153, 230. 

11 Ratzel, op. cit., II: 250, 260; Featherman, op. cit., I: 355. 

12 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 228-30, 334 ff., 336, 352-3, et al.; Feather- 
man, op. cit., I: 355-56; Ratzel, op. cit., II: 480; Letourneau, op, cit., 
119, 135, 217, 230; Appendix 10. 

13 Featherman, op. cit., 1 : 355-56 ; Ratzel, op. cit., II : 480 ; Letourneau, 
op. cit., 119, 135, 217, 230; Appendix 10. 

14 Featherman, op. cit., 1 : 23. 

15 Appendix, 1, 2, 10 ; Letourneau, op. cit., 47, 58, 69, 122-23. 



24 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Physical facts. — The physical man is not neglected. Be- 
sides the spontaneous exercise which his life suggests and 
enforces, primitive man has universally practiced himself in 
the dance. 16 Rhythm, as indicated before, is an instinct. Ges- 
ture wonderfully attracts and meets with ready response. The 
dances thus minister to religious ceremony, which is highly 
developed in these tribes, to primitive impulse for the motions 
involved, and perhaps to the social instinct. At least they are a 
most characteristic part of life, and every true tribesman must 
train himself in them. Then the tribe prescribes special phys- 
ical training for its new members, and lays particular emphasis 
upon physical tests involving severe physical strain, 17 to which 
the boy must be subjected before becoming a member of the 
tribe. Primitive peoples spontaneously provide for certain 
physical qualities to be developed in new tribesmen. 

It is not necessary for us, in the present connection, to elabor- 
ate these topics in great detail. It is sufficient to know that the 
most primitive peoples have accumulated a variety of experi- 
ences that may be grouped into several classes. 18 

Education of the child and of the adolescent. — Some of 
the simpler accumulations are naturally and inevitably appro- 
priated by children. The most vital of them are studiously 
reserved for adolescents, 19 and their mastery is the culmination 
of youthful achievement, or the initial step in full manhood. 
While we are not concerned directly with elementary educa- 
tion, a brief reference to it will give a better basis for the study 
of adolescent education and will at the same time help us to 
gain a clearer conception of it. In order to fully appreciate this 
earlier stage of education we must keep carefully in mind 
what was said in Chapter I as to the point of view of primitive 
peoples, their ideals, and their aims. 20 

16 Appendix, i, 7, 10; Ratzel, op. cit., II: 480; Letourneau, op. cit., 
120, 134, 217. See also Featherman, op. cit., and Spencer and Gillen, 
op. cit., 381. 

17 Appendix, 2 ; Ratzel, op. cit., II : 394-5 ; Featherman, op. cit., 1 : 623 ; 
Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 271-2, 347, 380, 450 ff. ; also Chapters VII, 
VIII; Letourneau, op. cit., 153-4. 

18 See page 30 f . 

19 Appendix, 2 ; Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 145, 229-30, 309 ; Le- 
tourneau, op. cit., 153-4. 

20 Chapter I, pp. 8, 9. 



PRIMITIVE TRIBES 25 

The aim in elementary education. — The aim in primitive 
elementary education is a general one. Aims do not become 
fully definite and purposeful till the secondary period. Means 
are the simplest and most natural. There is, no definite organi- 
zation. The whole process may be said to be largely spontane- 
ous. Observation, imitation, play, participation, showing, rote- 
learning 21 comprise the method, which is ready-made, not 
studied ; a gift of nature, not planned. In this way are taught 
the simplest facts and processes needed for life in the tribe, — 
the elementary and more necessary portions of the race acqui- 
sitions that have been outlined. 22 

Different types of elementary education. — As was sug- 
gested in Chapter I the simplest form of education seems to be 
that which is purely spontaneous, through imitation and play. 
The initiative comes from the children, 23 as they are left largely 
to themselves. The next stage is very similar, but has the 
additional element of participation in the work of parents. A 
third stage is reached when the parents make definite efforts 
and plans (family) to teach their children the necessary opera- 
tions of life. 24 The fourth stage is that in which special teach- 
ers for training the young, 25 — clan members, elders, priests, — 
are provided. Education seems to move from the type in 
which the elders are the repositories of all the learning of the 
race to that in which priests are supreme. 

Discipline. — It is interesting to note also that in primi- 
tive life there is no conception of discipline in the sense of 
supervision and government, including corporal punishment. 
Corporal punishment is not a relic of barbarism, but a product 
of civilization. In the most primitive races the children are 
practically abandoned to govern themselves, and for a consider- 

21 Appendix, 10; Letourneau, op. cit., 134, 151. 

22 Method and scope of training are indicated in Letourneau's ac- 
counts of Australians, New Caledonians, Hottentots, East and West 
Africans, Polynesians, Tartars, Malays; in Ratzel's and Featherman's 
descriptions of African and Eskimo life; and in Spencer and Gillen's 
Studies of Central Australian Tribes. Appendix 10. 

23 Featherman, op. cit., 1:514-15, 599; Letourneau, op. cit., I33~I34# 
153; Appendix 10. 

24 Appendix 10; Featherman, op. cit., I: 427. 

25 Appendix 10. 



26 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

able distance up in the evolution of education discipline is mild 
and lax, " douceur," as Letourneau puts it. When, however, 
training becomes a more conscious process, careful sur- 
veillance becomes prominent, and punishment, admonition, and 
exhortation suggest themselves as the readiest means of moral 
training. 

Secondary education. — Primary education is just what 
we might expect, natural, informal. We need not dwell fur- 
ther on it here. Secondary education, while sharing some of 
its characteristics, is radically different from it. Aims and 
ideals have become fully conscious and definite. The knowl- 
edge to be imparted is carefully defined. Method is the object 
of great care. It has been carefully planned and is very pre- 
cise. To get at its real meaning it is more essential here than 
in discussing elementary education to recall and impress primi- 
tive ideals and aims dwelt upon in Chapter I. 26 Briefly the 
plan is this : — 

1. The boy is to be capable of representing and supporting 
clan or tribe mentally and physically. He must master the 
facts, ceremonies, and lore that are most essential in maintain- 
ing the forms of life and thought characteristic of his social 
and political environment. 27 

2. Special localities are chosen for the most impressive 
parts of the educational process. 28 

3. The boys are separated from the women, 29 who have no 
part in the most characteristic details of the proceedings, and 
they are taken in charge by picked men, while the whole pro- 
ceeding is directed by " headman " and elders. It is interest- 
ing to find that there is a union of tribes in this course of edu- 
cation and that the occasion is taken advantage of for inter- 
tribal meetings of elders. 30 This, of itself, adds force and 
impressiveness to the ceremonies and to the training that the 
boys now receive. Amid silence (on the part of the novices), 

26 Chapter I, pp. 8, 9. 

27 Featherman, op. cit., 1 : 413, 514-15, 580, 623 ; Spencer and Gillen, 
op. cit., 139^40, 213-18 ff., 271-2, 310-11; Letourneau, op. cit., 134; 
Ratzel, op. cit., II : 370. See Appendix 2, 3, 7. 

28 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 139-40. See Appendix 2. 

29 Appendix 2. 

so Appendix 2; Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 272*. 



PRIMITIVE TRIBES 27 

awe and mystery, amid apparent manifestations of the spirit 
forces, with occasional weird sounds from the bull-roarers in 
which dwell ancestral spirits, 31 the most vital and carefully 
guarded items of the tribe's acquisitions and the most sacred 
part of tribal history are impressed on the boys, and they 
receive on their bodies the tribal symbols and assume the char- 
acteristic articles of man's dress. 32 After the special cere- 
monies it is not uncommon for the boys to pass a time in the 
" bush " supporting themselves, and sometimes, at least, receiv- 
ing further instruction from the " elders." 33 During the 
initiation also the boys may be taught a new name and a mystic 
language. 34 We must not suppose the exercises are necessarily 
brief; they are never such. They are sometimes distributed 
over years. A candidate for tribehood, too, may be, and fre- 
quently, if not always, is required to be present at more than 
one such occasion as has just been referred to, before becom- 
ing a fully initiated " man." 35 He probably is not always 
required to go through the ordeal a second time, though this 
fact comes out definitely in one case which is recorded. 

That which forms what we may call the subject matter of 
this training will be found to connect itself particularly but 
not exclusively with religion, physical power, and folk-lore. 
That part of the initiatory proceedings or teaching which is 
connected with the physical boy is very conspicuous, but not 
on that account as important as some other elements of the 
training. 

Physical marks and tests. — This latter topic needs a few 
additional words to emphasize what, it is fair to assume, is the 
fundamental conception connected with it. Under the head 

31 Appendix 1, 2 ; Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 139 ff., 149. 
32 Appendix 2; Featherman, op. cit., I: 9, 566-67. 

33 Appendix 2, 4, 5 ; Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 347. 

34 Appendix 4, 5, 6 ; Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 139, 140. 

When tribe was enemy of tribe and the possession of secrets by 
another tribe might have tragic consequences, secrecy was a neces- 
sary tribal policy. Hence it is not strange that women did not partici- 
pate in the mature business of the tribe, aside from any influence 
coming from early conceptions of woman's position. In war they 
would be captives and might jeopardize tribal interests by divulging 
tribal secrets either voluntarily or under stress. The mystic language 
may have special significance here, as Mathews suggests. 

35 Appendix 3. 



28 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

of physical we may place three classes of experiences, 36 
1°, body-markings, 2°, mutilations, 3 , severe physical strain 
or suffering. We may assume that there are two ends in view. 
Thus, i° and 2° probably have for their object the assimila- 
tion of the individual to the totem of the tribe ; certain changes 
of the body (especially of the mouth and head) are necessary 
to give him some resemblance to the animal that represents the 
totem. The tattooings of various kinds and degrees, gash- 
ings, incisions, and cicatrices, are perhaps totemic signs and 
symbols; at least they are tribal. It has perhaps been com- 
mon to regard the second class of experience (mutilations) as 
mere physical tests, to prove the boy before admitting him to 
the tribe, but it is more significant, and more in accord with 
what we know of race development, to regard them as totemic 
in origin. The third class of physical experiences may prob- 
ably be regarded as purely physical tests or examinations. It 
is possible that they came in later after the significance of the 
second class had been lost. 37 

Results of this training. — From what has been said it is 
evident that the result of such training gives a high degree of 
efficiency to the powers of observation and to memory, espe- 
cially the latter. Much of the ceremony of initiation is calcu- 
lated to stimulate attention incisively even painfully and 
this is one of the prime conditions for strengthening the 
memory, or better, the memories. There is practically no train- 
ing of the intellectual powers further than has been noted, but 
this secondary education has a distinct effect on moral develop- 
ment, in fact is intended to have, giving courage, self-control, 
respect for authority, and other qualities, as Spencer and Gillen 
show from a study of primitive tribes in Australia. 38 

If it be thought that too much definiteness and purposeful- 
ness has been assumed in the matter of secondary education 
among primitive tribes, — that much has been " read into " their 
plans, that a scheme of education has been " made up," a brief 

36 Appendix 2, 10 ; Featherman, op. cit., 1 : 224, 407, 566-67, 580, 623 ; 
Ratzel, op. cit., II: 106, in, 394-5, 466, 470; Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 
272 ; Letourneau, op. cit., 153-4. See also references on page 13, note 35. 

37 Plato, Republic, 413-14. 

38 Spencer and Gillen, op. cit., 272; Appendix 10; Letourneau, op. 
cit., 199, 217, 221. 



PRIMITIVE TRIBES 29 

study will show that the evidence justifies even stronger 
statements than have been made. Mathews' account of initia- 
tion ceremonies among Australian savages may be taken as a 
basis. 39 It shows that there is a very definite course of instruc- 
tion. Spencer and Gillen's studies show that secondary train- 
ing initiates the boy into the early (mythological) history of 
his race, into totemic secrets, and into complicated ceremonies 
and dances that are, according to their crude notion, vitally 
related to the prosperity and life of the tribe. These accounts 
are reinforced by the mass of facts as to primitive life and edu- 
cation gathered by Ratzel and Featherman in their accounts 
of African, Australian, and Eskimo life, and by Letourneau 
in his L' Evolution de U Education} 

Primitive secondary education compared with modern 
secondary education. — Thus the impression grows that 
these primitive folk have aims and ideals in " secondary " edu- 
cation more clearly defined than ours (and naturally so in the 
absence of such complexity as faces us), that the course of 
training is sharply defined and fixed and is the object of 
unwavering faith, and that their method is clearly-cut, uniform, 
and well adapted to their purpose. Mr. Tozzer of the Peabody 
Museum, Cambridge, was initiated into the Navajo Indian 
tribe. His account of the initiation ceremonies of the Yei-bir 
tsai, which he kindly gave in a personal interview, 41 illustrates 
and enforces all these points and affords a fine example of the 
definiteness of primitive adolescent training. The high school, 
as has been said in Chapter I, is simply the primitive secondary 
school modernized. The change has come particularly in sub- 
ject matter and method. The primitive aim and our aim, 
stated in general terms, would be almost identical, as must be 
evident from what has been said in this chapter. Their aim, 
however, has a more definite meaning for them. Their educa- 
tion is systematized, in a way, as well as ours, and has all, or 
practically all, the elements that are found in our high schools. 
The difference between our secondary training and theirs does 

39 Appendix 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 

40 Appendix 10, which gives many references for different items of 
education. 

"Appendix 7. 



30 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

not lie so much in the fact that any of these elements of school- 
life are absent in primitive education, but in the fact that they 
have grown in scope and complexity since then, that ideals, 
subject matter, and method have adapted themselves to chang- 
ing conditions, though somewhat tardily, because of the con- 
servative nature of education. 

A variety of illustrative material as to primitive education 
of to-day will be found in the appendix and marginal refer- 
ences. If all the evidence is carefully studied, it will be found 
to support the conclusions as to prehistoric education given in 
Chapter I. Support will grow stronger as we advance. 

Summary of primitive secondary education. — The main 
points of this chapter may now be summarized in the follow- 
ing outline ; but it should be noted that the general classes of 
subject matter referred to are found in both the primary and 
the secondary period. The most characteristic parts are 
reserved for the adolescent boys. 

Education in the secondary period: — 

Aim. — Insight into the choicest knowledge of the tribe. Strong 
impressions of most important tribal characteristics and cus- 
toms. Induction into full citizenship. Education into the life 
of the tribe. 
Analysis of curriculum: — More serious and secret elements of the 
following : 
Industrial facts: — Elements of occupations. (This suggests 

manual training). 
Social and political facts : — Knowledge of and full participa- 
tion in clan and tribal life (organization, councils, etc.). 
(The foundation of civics.) 
Religious facts : — Primitive ritual. Particularly totemic cere- 
monies and signs; facts as to Churinga (bull-roarers). 42 
All characteristic ceremonies. Magic. (The beginnings of 
religious instruction are seen here, — now made a regular 
and very important part of the curriculum in several con- 
tinental systems.) 
Folk-lore: — Tales of ancestors and histories of totems. 
Songs. Practical knowledge gained through experience of 
tribe, treasured by old men and landed on. Sometimes a 
special totem name with all its significance, was given to the 
individual; sometimes a new language was taught. (The 
basis of language and literature.) Note also tabulation on 
pp. 6 ff., 23, 35. 

42 See Appendix 1, 2, 7. 



PRIMITIVE TRIBES 31 

Nature facts : — Close observation of nature enforced and vivi- 
fied through intense relations of men to natural phenomena 
and to nature's supplies. Knowledge treasured and trans- 
mitted in easy formulae. (The rudiments of the natural sci- 
ences.) 

Number : — Simple concrete facts. Few particular ideas. 
Limited series, perhaps up to 5, and then by 5's and io's. 
(The rudiments of mathematics and exact science.) 

Art : — General symbolism of tribe. Participation in mak- 
ing sacred objects (see sand-paintings of the Navajos). 
Body-paintings. Drawing. Carving of useful and orna- 
mental articles. (Beginnings of drawing and art, with fur- 
ther suggestions as to manual training.) 

Physical training : — Physical tests trying nerve and muscle. 
Body-markings, — tattooing, incisions, cicatrizing, teeth- 
breaking, etc. Dances. (An early stage of physical culture.) 

As we follow the training of the adolescent we can thus 
easily detect our modern curriculum in outline, for its founda- 
tions are plainly visible. 

Method. — ( 1 ) Observation — imitation — practice — participation. 

(2) Impressive initiation ceremonies exciting the highest de- 
gree of attention, and thus reinforcing memory. During these 
ceremonies there is a sustained effort to give definite instruc- 
tion and practice (of a rude sort) in matters of intimate con- 
cern to the life of the tribe. 

(3) Full participation in the life of the tribe, — at least after 
a period of probation. 

General characterization of primitive secondary education. 
— From the two studies summarized in Chapters I and II 
it appears that primitive peoples, while leaving the education 
of young children to nature and natural conditions, had and 
still have a definite aim and a studied plan of training in the 
case of boys of secondary age. The plan involves the conscious 
adaptation of method and matter to the aim, — in a word organi- 
zation of a very definite sort. The education of adolescents had 
in view two distinct and yet closely correlated objects, I, the 
mastery of the choicest knowledge inheritances of the race, so 
presented as to strike the more fully developed imagination of 
youth and inspire the boys under training with the importance of 
the impartations ; 2, vocational and civic training, which, though 
simple in character and scope, because of the simple and limited 
nature of tribal life, was as essential for existence as the more 



32 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

detailed vocational training of to-day. All this training was 
conducted by a group of men well fitted by age and experience 
to induct the new candidates for citizenship into the character- 
istic ideas and forms of the tribe. This education was thus 
public, not private. It was a community concern. The organi- 
zation of education was tribal. In this primitive secondary 
school the main features of secondary education, which were 
so familiar in later ages, were already visible. 

APPENDIX 

I. In connection with primitive tribes it is necessary to keep in 
mind two characteristic features of their life and thought : — 

A. Totems. — Ideas connected with their totems, — natural objects, 
generally animals or trees (but not necessarily these only), which they 
think were their first ancestors. The totems have certain signs or sym- 
bols that appear conspicuously on men's bodies or on prominent objects 
in the community. More than this, boys are often assimilated to these 
objects by dress, arrangement of hair, or bodily changes. The totem 
is one of the most fundamental conceptions among primitive races. 

B. Churinga, — " Bull-roarers." — The second feature is connected 
with the first. It is the " bull-roarer." Spencer and Gillen give an 
interesting account of this object in connection with the Alcheringa, — 
a name applied to what was to them the beginning of time, the 
period when their first ancestors were formed. These ancestors were 
so intimately associated with the totems that one of them is some- 
times called kangaroo-man or man-kangaroo. The human idea is 
often sunk in that of the animal or plant from which the man is 
supposed to have sprung. The history of the tribe began here with 
these semi-human ancestors having unique powers (as compared with 
their descendants), which were exercised in part in producing some 
of the striking geological features of the region. In connection with 
these Alcheringa ideas, perhaps, or as another version of the doings 
of those times, we find the story of the creation of men and women 
from plants and animals through some transformation, making rather 
inchoate individuals who dwelt in groups along the shore of the Salt 
Sea that originally covered part of the country. (120 ff., 388.) 

Now early races were impressed with the spirit part of the individual, 
which they objectified in different ways. The spirits of these Alcheringa 
ancestors were closely associated with certain rounded, oval or elon- 
gated, flattened stones and slabs of wood of various sizes (with sides 
flat and concave, or concave and convex), called churinga. In fact it 
was supposed that the spirits resided in these objects, and that when 
a child was born in the tribe, the spirit was reincarnated, the child 
thus possessing the churinga of the ancestor and of course belonging 
to his totem, without regard to the mother's totem. Naturally these 



PRIMITIVE TRIBES 33 

churinga were decorated with special symbols or devices, the device be- 
ing "generally a conventional arrangement of circular, semi-circular, 
spiral, curved, and straight lines, most frequently a series of concentric 
circles, or a close-set spiral." (145.) They were preserved with great 
care and secrecy. The location of their depositaries and the stories 
connected with them became an important part pf the knowledge of 
the tribe that was kept from all but the duly admitted male members. 
The smaller of these churinga were called bull-roarers. They, like 
some of the others, had holes bored in one end, perhaps because of a 
tradition that the Alcheringa men used to hang them up. Strings were 
attached to the bull-roarers, and a quick whirling in the air produced 
weird music that added a striking element in ceremonies. It is well 
known that such objects have in modern times become playthings. 
Many a one can look back to them as interesting objects of amusement, 
another illustration, as Haddon suggests, that serious religious objects 
of primitive times have become the playthings of modern times. We 
might say that one early educational force has been transformed into 
another, which, though less impressive, has still some educational value, 
— is really a part of a great series of educational forces which are of 
great import in early years. (This account applies to Central Australia, 
but it is useful for general knowledge of these objects.) 

2. A primitive secondary school. — Mathews in several articles 
gives detailed descriptions of initiation ceremonies. Here is an out- 
line of the Bunan of South Wales that he describes in the American 
Anthropologist 9 : 327 ff. 

(1.) Ceremonies serving as a signal that a Bunan is to take place. 

(2.) Selection of the place. 

(3.) Meeting to talk over general interests of the tribe and to de- 
termine details of the Bunan. 

(4.) Bunan ground prepared, the main elements being, (a) a large 
circular place cleared, surrounded by a low embankment with a single 
opening; a pathway leading from the opening to a second circle about 
a sixth of a mile distant made like the first, but smaller; the path 
bordered on each side by an embankment for a short distance from 
the circles. This diagram will illustrate some of these points. 




S=o> 



-= *> 




«^> • ^=3? 



(b) Beside the pathway, in the smaller circle, and elsewhere were 
various figures and devices made by heaping up earth or cutting (these 
probably representing totem animals and signs, at least in part). 

(5.) Messengers summon tribes to attend. 

(6.) Tribes gather, bringing their novices to be initiated. (The 



34 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



Bunan is not for the single tribe in whose district it occurs. Various 
tribes are united in it.) 

(7.) Headmen and followers examine ground and devices. 

(8.) Boys taken away from the women. 

There are eighteen distinct movements up to this point, all attended 
with characteristic forms. These, or at least the most striking of them, 
are here grouped under the eight heads. The "bull-roarer" is a com- 
mon accompaniment for certain parts of the initiation ceremonies and 
continues to be used throughout the Bunan. Frequent corroborees 
(dance ceremonies) also are held. 

Now follow various movements and ceremonies with the boys, which, 
in the case in hand, may continue for three or four days. The boys, 
till near the end, must have heads bowed, or covered, or both (except 
of course where the purpose of the Bunan may require a temporary 
removal of this restriction, if we may judge from a similar ceremony 
in another place, though Mathews expressly says that in the present 
case the boys were kept in this position till near the end of the ordeal). 
During the entire ceremony they must not speak. 

Most of the letters of the alphabet would be required to designate 
separately all the observances in this part of the Bunan, but they may 
be condensed and summarized as follows : — 

A. Before leaving the vicinity of the circles they see the devices, 
peculiar dances about them, and some feats of jugglery by doctors and 
wizards. 

B. They go into the bush where they observe, amid special forms 
calculated to impress them, various performances that, for the most 
part, are probably symbolic, — dances, games, pantomimes, incantations, 
and imitations of nature. One of these seems unique in this region. 
It consists of swaying motions in special directions, accompanied by 
certain sounds, all intended to imitate the " breaking and recoil " of 
waves on the ocean shore. A tooth is knocked out, with peculiar forms. 

C. Finally they turn toward the original camp, or rather a new one 
made in their absence by the women assisted by the men left behind. 
On the way the bull-roarers are placed in the hands of the novices 
for special examination, — a large one, the jummagong, used in the 
initiation ceremonies, and a small one, the mooroonga, for general 
tribal summoning. The boys are now painted, each with characteristic 
devices peculiar to his tribe (probably totemic symbols), and assume 
the belt and kilt worn by men. (The men have been painted and 
decorated earlier, before the beginning of the ceremonies, and now 
repaint themselves.) The concluding ceremonies of the Bunan gather- 
ing take place in a special enclosure near the new camp, and in a 
special camp for the boys where the old men impress upon them 
certain interdictions as to the flesh of animals (probably totems). 

D. The final ceremonies of initiation however take place at the homes, 
of the several tribes, when the boys, after a life of perhaps some 
months in the "bush," winning their own living (and perhaps receiv- 



PRIMITIVE TRIBES 35 

ing certain instruction), go through certain forms and are removed 
from all restraint, but not from all restriction. Before the latter occurs 
the boys must be present at several Bunans or reach a certain age. 

3. More facts as to the primitive secondary school. — In his arti- 
cle on initiation ceremonies of Australian tribes, in Proc. of Amer. 
Phil. Assoc. 37 : 54 ff., Mathews tells us that the novices' view is 
concealed part of the time. They are shown marks and objects, and 
taught folk-lore connected with the nation. There are burlesques and 
songs every day, and there are dramatic representations of a crude 
nature. 

The novices after initiation are kept under control of their seniors 
for a considerable time, and must conform to certain rules laid down 
by the headmen. They must also attend one additional Burbung (the 
name of the initiation ceremony in this case) or more, before they 
are thoroughly acquainted with different parts of the ceremonial and 
are fully qualified as tribesmen. 

4. In his article on the Toara ceremony of the Dippel tribes of 
Queensland, Amer. Anthropol., 1900: 139 ff., the same author says that 
while in the " bush " the novices are taught a mystic language under- 
stood by none but those who have passed through the prescribed course 
of instruction. 

5. Mathews' article on Phallic Rites and Initiation Ceremonies of 
South Australian Aborigines (Proc. of Amer. Phil. Soc. 39:622!?.), 
gives these interesting items : — 

During the long sojourns in the bush (with the old men), after 
each ordeal, the boys are permitted to see or listen to certain dances 
and songs, the secret lore of their forefathers, and stories of the 
traditional customs of the tribe. A mystic language or vocabulary is 
also inculcated, known only to the initiated. Every man and woman, 
all animals, plant's, and surrounding objects, and the principal places 
in their hunting grounds have secret names by which they are spoken 
of among the initiated, in addition to the general nomenclature with 
which the women and children are familiar. After the novices have 
passed through the final stages of the inauguration rites the instruc- 
tion by the elder tribesmen is continued for many years at the single 
men's camp at which the catechumens have now the right to be 
present. 

During initiation in the bush with the old men the boys are shown 
the sacred bull-roarer and certain crystalline quartz stones supposed 
to protect, or in some way to bestow magical powers on the possessor. 

6. We should also note the following items from the same writer's 
article on the Origin, Organization, and Ceremonies of Australian 
Aborigines, ' in Amer. Phil. Soc. Proc, 39 : 556 ff. : — 

Youths are instructed in customs and traditions (perhaps of their 
conquerors originally), are shown many things entirely new and are 
taught another language. Personal names are changed, — kept secret 
from all women of tribe. Mathews explains a part of the initiation 



36 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

ceremonies by supposing they grew out of circumstances attending 
wars and raids. He suggests that ceremonies are kept secret from 
women, because in war women belong to the victors and would carry 
the secrets to the enemy. 

He says also that pubertal boys are deeply scarified on shoulders 
and on muscles of breast and thighs. 

7. A Navajo school. — Mr. Tozzer of the Peabody Museum, 
Cambridge, Mass., has been initiated into the Navajo tribe of Ameri- 
can Indians. He gave an account of initiation ceremonies in that tribe 
in a personal interview, — from which the following notes are taken. 

Before puberty children pick up in a natural way, through observa- 
tion, imitation, and showing, the common facts of tribal life, — method 
of weaving, etc. There is no writing and so no formal education at 
this period. Young children are present at a ceremony with the " sand 
painting." The priest utters a sharp cry of the god, gives a drink 
from a gourd containing the sacred liquid, and transfers his hand from 
the god's head to that of the child. The latter is naturally awed 
and even terrified at the ceremony. 

There is a nine-day ceremony called the Yei-bi-tsai or night-chant, 
during which boys and girls are initiated. The ceremony used in initia- 
tion must be passed through four times during life, the first time about 
the age of puberty. In this initiation ceremony the boy sees men 
dressed in a definite order, the culminating act being the placing of 
the mask, that really transforms men into gods with the power of 
gods. Certain rules must be followed as long as the mask is on (there 
must be no talk, etc.). Before this the novices have supposed that 
those who appear as gods are real gods who have come down from 
heaven. The ceremony gives them a new view and a new attitude 
toward belief. The gods are men personating gods, but still possessing 
the real attributes and powers of gods when dressed to represent 
them. The boys also hear and see the complicated ritual, including 
dances, songs, and prayers, the most vital parts now for the first time, 
and all at near view for the first time. These things, or at least the 
most sacred of them, take place in a circular earth hut thirty feet 
in diameter, called the Hogan. Near by, under the guidance of the 
old men, they practice all the ritual, till, by constant repetition through 
this and the succeeding initiations, each practically covering the same 
points, they become perfected and can conduct the ceremonies them- 
selves. In the Hogan the boys practice " sand-painting " under masters 
in the art, and subject to the correction (and even bantering) of master 
and companions. The painting is planned on a large scale. It is shut 
in on three sides by feathered poles (representing breath or spirit), but 
is left open on the east. It represents the gods ; every line almost is 
symbolic. It is used in healing ceremonies and for the ceremony with 
young children that has been referred to. 

The real initiation consists of the pollen and yucca ceremony, in which 
pollen for the girl and yucca fibre for the boy are transferred from 



PRIMITIVE TRIBES 37 

the god to the body, touching various parts and even making some 
figure. Girls are initiated as well as boys, but they take no part 
in the dances and are excluded from certain parts of the ceremony. 
They are seldom in the Hogan, except for healing (no one enters it 
till the initiation period) ; otherwise their initiation is similar to that 
of boys. 

8. Other descriptions. — "Time after time, when the Ertnatulunga 
(depository of churinga), is visited, the churinga are rubbed over and 

carefully explained by the old men to the younger ones, who in course 
of time come to know all that the old men can impart, and so the 
knowledge of whom the churinga have belonged to and what the design 
on each one means is handed on from generation to generation." 
(Spencer and Gillen, 145.) 

9. " The sustained interest " in the Engwura ceremonies, which 
"were enacted day after day and night after night . . . was very re- 
markable when it is taken into account that mentally the Australian 
native is merely a child who acts as a general rule on the spur of 
the moment. On this occasion they were gathered together to perform 
a series of ceremonies handed down from the Alcheringa, which had 
to be performed in precisely the same way that they had been in the 
Alcheringa. Everything was ruled by precedent; to change even the 
decoration of a performer would have been an unheard-of thing; the 
reply, ' it was so in the Alcheringa,' was considered as perfectly satis- 
factory by way of explanation." At the same time we find that some 
changes have been made. (Spencer and Gillen.) 

10. Summarized references to Letourneau, with some ideas sug- 
gested by the study: 

Art instincts,— 47, 58, 69, 114, 125-6, 159, 187 ff., 226. See also 37. 

Discipline; parental control, — 84, 139, 165, 169, 174, 179, 180, 181, 
199, 206. — Success in moral training as compared with scholastic train- 
ing,— 54, 217-19, 238. 

Folk-lore ; wandering minstrels ; story-telling gatherings, — 126, 128, 
135, 153, 203, 230. 

Initiation ceremonies, — 40, 41, 53, 85, 86, 134-5, I53~5, 207-8. 

Instinct for rhythm, gesture, etc., — 126, 158, 205, 213-4, 217. 

Memory, prominence of ; weak attention ; attitude toward abstrac- 
tions and generalizations; rote-learning, — -44, 54, 59, 127, 128, 203, 232, 
233, 243, 248, 249. 

Number power,— 37-8, 47-8, 59, 67, 123-4, 146, 184, 200-2, 237. 

Observation, imitation, play, participation, etc., — 39, 46, 60, 66, 74, 
83, 101, 116, 118, 121, 122, 133, 138, 143, 150, 151, 153, 165, 174, 226, 238. 

Oratory and oratorical training appearing at an early stage in 
civilization with freer and wider political status. — 84, 85, 126, 135, 176. 

Parental education,— 40, 46, 53, 116, 118, 122, 133, 143, 151, 152, 153, 
165, 171, 174, 180, 198, 199. 

Special arrangements for education, — 83, 84, 153, 171. 

Spontaneous education,— 39, 58, 60, 66, 74, 101, 121, 134, 138, 142. 



38 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

As civilization advances among primitive peoples knowledge, instead 
of being vested in old men, is vested in special functionaries, — priests, 
-183. 

A study of education among primitive peoples suggests the idea 
that making education the privilege of a class is a savage trait, or 
a characteristic of early stages of civilization. 



Ill 

SECONDARY TRAINING IN HOMER AND HESIOD 

Leaving primitive life of to-day and primitive life of pre- 
historic times, which, in a way, explain one another, we take 
up the study of records coming to us from the border-land of 
the prehistoric and the historic, which at once hark back to 
more primitive times, give a vivid picture of contemporary 
life, and look forward into the future. 

Educational value of these epics. — The Homeric poems 
are very interesting from a literary view-point, for they repre- 
sent the culmination of ballad literature. For our present pur- 
pose they are interesting because the ballad relics that they 
contain give us glimpses of the past and afford us some clue to 
the educational forces at work in early times. The hints as to 
education that they give, however, apply particularly to the 
families of the chiefs whose life they portray. " The people's 
lot was hard," and their education far more limited and primi- 
tive. Hence, while the education that is outlined in this chapter 
is of a primitive type and will apply, in its general features, to 
the whole population, there are many features which concern 
only the special class. This limitation must be kept before us 
as we look into the educational agencies of the times. 

Social and political organization. — Organization and ac- 
quisition in Homeric times have much in common with what 
we have found in previous chapters, but we have evidently 
come to a new epoch. Political organization is more complex. 
Several social and political elements appear, each influencing 
thought and movement. King, council, agora have become 
clearly defined. It is to be noted that the general body of the 
people has its force, however small. That the force is not 
insignificant appears from a brief and significant Homeric 
sentence, — " The people's voice is stern." x While the sev- 

1 Odyssey, XIV. 

39 



4 o THE HIGH SCHOOL 

eral factors of organization are by no means coordinate, the 
mere fact that they exist is very suggestive and indicates the 
appearance of new educational forces and wider participation. 

The family also has grown. The Homeric family has added 
a slave element of nurture. The slaves were often high-born 
individuals who had suffered the misfortune of being kid- 
napped in the freebooting life of the nobles of the period. 
Later, when formal education had come in, they were often 
the regular tutors of boys. Now they had their part in the 
more informal education of the times. With this high-born 
slave accession and all the attendants of a large estate the 
family has become a small village, and, with its varied inter- 
ests, is broader and more educative than the primitive fam- 
ily. 

Change in ideals. — But changes have gone farther than 
this. Growth in ideals is seen most characteristically in the 
fact that the community unit is not so exclusive as in earlier 
epochs. While we know that it ruled, and ruled insistently, at 
a much later period than we are now studying, still even here 
we find the beginnings of individual initiative. The gens is 
still predominant. It moulds, commands and transmits as 
before, but with this important difference, that the individual 
stands out more conspicuously, pauses to consider, puts in a 
protest or suggestion, or even gives signs of moving in an inde- 
pendent course, — a spirit that, as the race evolves, is to add 
individual development to mere tribal acquisition. 2 

Educational aim. — The educational aim is thus a tribal 
one still, — to train a worthy member of the tribe or clan. 
But we must, in addition, look for greater individuality, and 
this perhaps comes out in the Homeric ideals embodied in the 
expressions, speaker of words and doer of deeds; good man- 
ager and manipulator of estate or office. 

Growth in race acquisition. — As to accumulations and 
inheritances in the various lines mentioned in previous chap- 

2 Appendix 3, 17. "And the Assembly swayed like high sea waves 
of the Icarian main." Iliad, II. " Then to them spake Thoas, son of 
Andraimon, skilled in throwing the dart and good in close fight, and in 
council did few of the Achaeans surpass him, when the young men 
were striving in debate," — Iliad, XV. See also Iliad III, VII; 
Odyssey, VI, XV. 



HOMER AND HESIOD 41 

ters, they have not. merely been increased in number ; there 
has been a great change in spirit and scope. Industrial forces 
represent a wider range of power 3 and thought. Practical 
arts show a striking advance over previous periods. Recent 
explorations in Crete and Greece have revealed surprising 
skill and perfection here. Applications to life have passed 
beyond necessity into the realm of luxury. Work was so thor- 
oughly and massively done that it has defied time. The fine 
arts have shared in the advancement. They have taken on 
new forms and have developed a more pervasive esthetic feel- 
ing. In fact, over the whole life, even the physical, has come 
a kind of esthetic power whose real significance is seen best 
in the idea of symmetry, which Greece is eventually to bring 
into education. 4 Every nation has some art instinct ; with the 
Greeks it first comes to full consciousness as an educational 
force. Religious feelings have lost something of their awe 
and sternness, 5 but apparently nothing of their impressiveness. 
They are freer and more social. Folk-lore has entered the 
bounds of literature. The physical life has become larger and 
finer and freer. A really wonderful civilization has been 
developed. 6 It is even declining, so that the period immediately 
represented by the Homeric literature has been regarded as a 
decadent one. 6 Early historic Greece was more primitive than 
the Greece of the Homeric epoch. 

Educational forces. — The educational forces at work are 
therefore finer as well as more inspiring than those of genuine 
primitive life, because some of the weights have been removed 
and individual thought has more outlets. The people respon- 
sible for this have gathered up the best with new genius and 

s Appendix 6, 19, 21; Iliad, II, III, VI, XI, XII, XVI, XVII; 
Odyssey, IV, V, VII, VIII, XII, XVII. 

* Appendix 7, 9; Iliad, II, III, XVIII; Odyssey, IV, VI, VIII, 
XVII, XXIII. 

5 Appendix 4, 18; Iliad, I, II, X; Odyssey, II. 

•See Schliemann's Excavations (Shuchhardt), and Baikie's Sea- 
Kings of Crete. 

Incursions into Greece of course easily made possible the coexistence 
of two grades of civilization, a higher one belonging to a conquered 
people, a lower one due to the vigorous new people pushing on. Under 
such conditions the social status of a country has zeniths and declines 
in its cyclic development. At a later time the Roman Empire illus- 
trated the same variety. 



42 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



have made it better. There is new spirit, new outlook, and, 
correlatively, new insight. 

Method. — The method that goes with this new educa- 
tion impresses one as freer. There seems to have been less 
of the awesome, less tension of mental and physical attitude. 
One feels that the province of rote-learning has been narrowed 
and that the process probably has now to do with mere form. 
But educational movements are conservative and retain all the 
past in method. Modes of procedure, like formulae, are so 
deeply imbeded in human nature and so impressed through ex- 
perience that they become natural modes of action and may 
hold sway far more widely than can be justified, because they 
do not enter the thoroughfares or even by-paths of thought, but 
work in the province of the unconscious or subconscious. We 
shall thus find each epoch clinging to methods that were evolved 
under other conditions and should have passed wholly, or in 
large part, with the conditions. It may be true, however, that 
each epoch contains some of the conditions of all preceding 
epochs, and that, therefore, we may always find some use for 
all ideals and methods which have appeared. They form 
threads in the weaving of the new, but are merely contributory, 
and find their mission in losing themselves in the new. 

Without discussing the matter at great length, which is un- 
necessary, after the general discussions of the first two chap- 
ters, we may summarize the forces at work in this new period 
and briefly characterize ideals and method. 

Education in Homeric Times. 7 

Prominent features or aims : — Speaker of words and doer of 
deeds. Good ordering of affairs (at home and in the state) — 
Kindly and intimate home relations. 

No formal schools. — Education conducted by the following agen- 
cies: 

I. Education through the family. Family organization patriar- 
chal, — father, mother, children, slaves (chief slaves whose lot 
was most happy; common slaves). Children remain long at 
home, daughters till marriage, sons even after marriage. Hence 
we have the family in the large sense, really the nucleus of the 

7 Appendix 1-15, (summary of references to the Iliad and Odyssey 
bearing on the different phases of this topic.) 



HOMER AND HESIOD 43 

clan. Close and affectionate family relations very noticeable. 
Familiar and intimate relations of selected slaves with main fam- 
ily; slaves sometimes brought up with children. High considera- 
tion accorded woman; freedom; equality (but relics of marriage 
by purchase). High degree of culture in many ways. Table man- 
ners however very crude. — Large estate managed by household. 
Picture of life of nobles charming, enticing. Sharply contrasted 
with that of common people. 

Home experiences and surroundings many-sided. Hence exer- 
cise and training on many sides. Children participate. Depended 
upon especially to continue line and honor and keep up life of 
home. Arms inherited and used. 

Care, nuture, and training from parents, attendants; sometimes 
from guardians and prominent characters like Phcenix. Father 
chief factor in boy's life; mother in girl's. Tutelage long. 

Home training supplemented by foreign journeys and expedi- 
tions; guest-friendships, comradeships. 

2. Education through industrial environment: — Many occupa- 
tions of the simpler sort, — most important being agriculture, pas- 
toral pursuits, carpentry and ship-building, sea-faring, freebooting, 
leech-craft, seer-craft, primitive mining, metal work, textile work, 
household-craft. 

3. Education through social and political environment: — Polit- 
ical organization simple but suggestive, offering considerable oppor- 
tunity for training: — 1. King; 2. Council of Elders; 3. General 
Assembly. Power in each. Power of people indicated in Od. 
XIV, " The people's voice is stern." 

4. Education through religious environment and into religious 
knowledge and history : — Many gods, concrete conception ; gods 
interested in and intimate with men; confident and easy relations 
of men with gods; close contact influences men intellectually, 
morally, physically; men instructed, endowed, directed by gods. 
Gods worshipped by vows, prayers, sacrifices. Special forms of 
worship. 

Various stories as to gods' history and relations with men. 

Fate. — Spirits of departed. — Omens. — Dreams. — Soothsay- 
ings, — etc. 

Motives in attitudes toward men and even toward gods often 
utilitarian. Home virtues strong, beautiful. Community virtues 
within the class comparatively high. Chivalrous conduct. Larger 
community virtues low. 

5. Education through esthetic environment: — Palace. — Altars. 
— Objects of personal and home decoration and use, showing great 
artistic skill. Note especially textile work and metal work. Care- 
ful observation of nature aided esthetics greatly. 

6. Education through folk-lore : — Songs, ballads ( foundation of 
epics), race and hero tales; practical wisdom accumulated as the 



44 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

race grew and embodied in business directions, in proverbs, etc. ; 
careful and accurate observations of nature, — nature-lore. Old 
men " wise in ancient lore " much sought. The bard here reached 
his full development as an educational force. 

7. Education through physical environment: — Plays, games, 
dances, training in arms, etc. 

Method in education : — Observation, association, imitation, prac- 
tice, participation. — Contrasts between child and adolescent fre- 
quent; striking characteristics of adolescent noted. — Attractive 
pictures of home life. Gradual development. 

Suggestions from Hesiod as to Education. 8 

Additional points from Hesiod. — Still no formal schools. Gen- 
eral educational forces same as in Homer. But Hesiod gives a 
picture of more homely life. 

Some special points: — 

A definite and systematic account of the origin of gods. A clas- 
sification of gods. So an organized body of religious lore to be 
handed on. Also a systematic account of the origin and develop- 
ment of man, through five races or ages named from metals. In 
the second race, the silver race, " for a hundred years a boy was 
reared and grew beside his wise mother." 

A body of precepts as to agriculture, etc., and a calendar in- 
dicating best days for various things. Altogether a considerable 
amount of folk-lore to be handed on. 

He speaks of the value of rivalry, necessity of labor, and effort 
for attainment of virtue, all of which are educational. Hesiod's 
attitude is that of the practical man dealing with every-day con- 
ditions of life. 

Education of the adolescent in this period. — All this is 
of much value for our study of the evolution of secondary 
education. It is not to be expected that poems, composed for 
the purposes that are evident in these cases, — especially poems 
evolving as the Homeric poems have evolved, — would go out 
of their way to speak of education. But incidentally (and in- 
cidental things are sometimes the best for our purpose), we 
get a good deal of information as to the influences at work 
and the subject matter that surrounded and affected the boy 
and called him to occupy and use,- — a call which was enforced 
by custom and by the definite efforts of his superiors. From 
what we learn of the habits of antiquity, which have already 
been treated at length, we know that the secondary boy gained 

8 Appendix 16-22. 



HOMER AND HESIOD 45 

the best of this curriculum that was pressing on him. In Ho- 
mer he seems to be regarded as a new individual 9 capable of a 
power, and requiring an education, different from those of the 
boy. The relics of ancient custom, which we find in the period 
to be treated in Chapter IV, also show that he was expected to 
have a training of his own, — especially, though not exclu- 
sively, physical, political, and religious training. 

Formal schools there were none, any more than in the pre- 
historic period ; individual training at home or in some friendly 
court or by some striking personality form the very simple 
organization for educational purposes, but back of it and in it 
was the social organization that gave the larger education. 10 
The practice of sending the boy to a friendly court or to some 
skillful man indicates special training for the secondary period, 
for it is this, evidently, that is referred to in the various state- 
ments in question, or in many of them. 

Homeric education was not primitive education, but it fol- 
lowed its general lines. Where it followed, however, it gave 
something vastly richer and broader. It seems also to have 
added one new feature. Besides the group of teachers who, 
as before, were simply men of experience, headmen, we begin 
to find the individual teacher with special qualifications, a man 
endowed with superior fitness for teaching young men. Shall 
we say that private education has been added to public educa- 
tion? 

If we should go back to primitive Greek education, as we 
may by Homeric aid, by inference from stereotyped forms 
found in historic times, 11 and by analogy from parallel condi- 
tions elsewhere, we should find that adolescent education here 
was the counterpart of that described in our first chapters in 
purpose, in course, and in method, which culminated in striking 
initiation ceremonies. Greek nature, however, may have thus 
early relieved the austerity, solemnity, and formality which 
have been noted in primitive training, as it certainly did at a 
later period. 

9 Appendix 13, 23. 

10 Appendix 10, 11, 22, 23; Iliad, V, IX, XIV, XVI, XVII, XXII, 
XXIII; Odyssey, XII. 

11 See especially Chapter IV. 



46 THE HIGH SCHOOL 



APPENDIX 

Some references to Iliad and Odyssey on various topics. 12 
i. Ideals : — Iliad, 55, 174. Various parts of the Odyssey emphasize 
the well-ordering of affairs. Both epics are full of passages showing ad- 
miration of strength and stature and physical beauty. 

2. Social organization: — Iliad, 43, 117, 137, 210, 262, 452; Odyssey, 
14, 26, 37, 40, 41, 42, 50, 52, 68, 80, 84, 90, 122, 175, 178, 200, 219, 222, 
233, 236, 241, 242, 244, 245, 250, 264, 272, 283, 304, 305, 307, 310, 312, 
321, 353, 378. 

3. Political organization: — Iliad, 2, 3, 16, 2~2, 24, 25, 27, 31, 45, 55, 
138, I39» 163, 299, 381, 458; Odyssey, 15, 66, 89, 199, 201, 220, 244, 319, 
328, 383. 

4. Religion, — animism, gods, omens, dreams, seers, etc.: — Iliad, 3, 
21, 22, 31, 47, 48, 86, 129, 192, 212, 236, 240, 266; references to gods, 
passim; Odyssey, 13, 20, 46, 166, 183, 246, 269, 304, 305, 308, 312, 318, 
368, 370, 379. 

5. Instruction by gods: — Iliad, 192, 282, 348, 458; Odyssey 88, 102, 
124, 278, 279, 317, 363- 

6. Industrial development, — general occupations, arts, crafts, etc. : 
— Iliad, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 47, 48, 50, 51, 55, 70, 71, 85, 112, 115, 117, 
120, 124, 135, 169, 204, 205, 209, 210, 218, 225, 239, 243, 277, 329, 337, 
365, 383; Odyssey, 12, 14, 47, 52, 79, 102, 115, 189, 219, 255, 273, 274, 
297, 304-5, 373- 

7. Physical development, — . games, etc.: — Iliad, 45, 383-84, 458 ff. ; 
Iliad has abundance of passages indicating strong physical develop- 
ment; Odyssey, 6, 45, 89, 90, 91, 113, 118, 281, 291, 362, 373. 

8. Folk-lore and means of propagating: — Iliad, 16, 39, 122, 167, 175, 
277, 381, 383, 384, 405; Odyssey, 6, 10, 11, 37, 45, 52, 63, 112, ti8, 
124, 175, 200, 242, 271, 273, 279, 280, 281, 291, 306, 353, 362, 376. Old 
men as repositories of knowledge: — Iliad, 138, 183, 266; Odyssey, 15, 
37i, 384. 

9. Art: — Iliad, 53, 61, 120, 215, etc.; Odyssey, 47, 90, 175, 199, 
269, 363, 372. 

10. Parental education. — Close relations of parents and children, 
etc.: — Iliad, 2, 84, 119, 169, 225, 226, 259, 260, 266, 282, 351, 367, 395-6, 
411, 449, 459, 493; Odyssey, 7, 14, 16, 48, 66, 67, 70, 84, 89, 170, 172, 
178, 189, 201, 209, 217, 219, 234, 241, 248, 252, 253 ff., 261, 266, 292, 307, 
308, 353, 368, 380, 385. 

11. Education outside the home: — Iliad, 174, 175-6, 209, 226-7, 260, 
320, 395, 396, 452; Odyssey, 234. 

12. Child-pictures: — Iliad, 301, 314, 322, 367, 449; Odyssey, 26, 380. 
Much in this section may apply to social organization. Close relations 
between parents and children are evident. Intimate relations between 
the family and certain slaves also appear. 

12 Reference to Palmer's Odyssey ; Lang, Leaf, and Myers' Iliad. 



HOMER AND HESIOD 47 

13. Recognition of adolescent power, etc.: — Iliad, 209, 299, 411; 
Odyssey 10, 12, 40, 108, 283, 289, 298, 301, 331, 355, 372-3- 

14. Woman s place : — Iliad, 173; Odyssey, 12, 89, 91, 338. 

15. Observation of nature, — passim.. 

Classification of Various Items Gathered froj^Hesiod: — 

16. Family life and relations, — cruder; picture less charming than 
that of Homer. But he deals with a different part of society. 

17. Political organization has evidently advanced. See reference to 
courts: — Works and Days, 37. 

18. Religion: — Body of knowledge as to origins; evolution of 
gods. Classification of gods. Body of religious precepts. Intimate 
contact of gods with men, — gods watch, conduct, help, instruct. Spirits. 
Ethical life rudimentary in some particulars, well developed in others. 
Woman placed below man in character. Works and Days, 250-55, 
280-5, 325-35, 340 ff., 375, 460, 705, 730- See also Theogony. 

19. Body of knowledge formed of condensed experience of the race 
in agriculture, often apothegmatic in nature. Astronomical facts as to 
times and seasons for agricultural operations. Nature signs for guid- 
ance. Calendar-lore and superstitions. Such knowledge naturally 
passed on by oral tradition. Works and Days, 360-70, 380 ff., 450, 
460 ff., 775. 

20. Body of knowledge or beliefs as to evolution of the human race. 
Men of the golden race became genii, constantly present with men and 
guarding them. 

21. Industrial life simple. Agriculture emphasized. 

22. Education domestic and through environment. Teaching power 
of poets like Hesiod. Rivalry, necessity of labor, effort for attainment 
of the good are educational stimuli. Works and Days, 22, 40, 185, 
225-35, 285-90, 300-315. 

23. " Badness, look you, you may choose in a heap ; level is the path 
and right near it dwells. But before virtue the immortal gods have 
set exertion, and long and steep and rugged at the first is the way to 
it, but when one shall have reached the summit, then truly it is easy, 
difficult though it be before." Works and Days, 285-90. 



IV 

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN GREECE — EARLY HISTORIC 
PERIOD x 

Letters the dividing point between primitive and historic 
education. — The invention of letters marks the dividing point 
between primitive education and early historic education in 
Greece. In primitive times letters were not thought of. The lit- 
tle community was a compact and exclusive whole, intensely de- 
voted to maintaining and advancing its life and excluding from 
it all other communities. Communication was of the simplest 
form. Written symbols beyond the rudest signs, such as 
notches, straight lines, and spirals, were unknown. Society did 
not feel the need of them. The germs of literature, however, 
were present in the different forms of folk-lore, particularly 
ballad forms. This folk-lore was easily appreciated, and it was 
readily transmitted by oral tradition. 

As society became more fully organized and the need of 
communication became more pressing and its forms more 
varied, written symbols were developed. Crude at first, so 
that no school was thought of or needed for teaching them, 
they grew in value, detail, and expressive power 2 till a real 
alphabet was developed and true phonetic writing and reading 
were possible. Ballads and hero tales were no longer 
entrusted to memory, oral tradition, as during the period when 
Homeric and Hesiodic literature was forming. Books were 
made, especially books of rhythmic tales, and inscriptions and 

1 In this study Athenian education is taken as the type. Spartan 
education is very interesting from more than one point of view, but 
it concerns us little in the direct traditions of the secondary school. 

2 Explorations among the Cretan ruins have shown that long before 
the Homeric period a " system of writing, syllabic and perhaps partly 
alphabetic," _ existed, and this discovery has placed the introduction 
of writing in Greece seven centuries earlier than has commonly been 
believed. 

48 



GREECE — EARLY HISTORIC PERIOD 49 

other forms of writing were common. By this time the need of 
having all members of the community familiar with the pho- 
netic elements of language and able to read called for special 
instruction in such things. Meantime number symbols took the 
place of the rude devices noted in the previous chapter, though 
the first symbols were very cumbrous ; these too and the needs 
to which they ministered suggested formal instruction. 

The letter school. — As has been shown the only formal 
arrangements for education in early times, whether in the 
heroic period, or in the ruder times of later Greek life on the 
mainland, seem to have had reference only to the adolescent. 
His was the first school, and we have seen that it was clearly 
defined in the most primitive civilization. But there came a 
time, before we get far into the historic period, when the neces- 
sity for " letters " and written speech for practical purposes 
became so pressing that a new form of instruction and a new 
school were developed, the school of " letters," the latter term 
being then interpreted broadly enough to include much more 
than it does now. The seemingly simple and elementary 
instruction here involved was naturally applied to childhood. 
Thus formal elementary education began, — first at the home, 
and later, as society became more specialized, at some common 
meeting place, — called significantly axoXrj in Greece, and in 
Rome ludus and schola. It came in Greece in the seventh cen- 
tury, in Rome, three centuries later. 3 Progress in " letters " 
was gradual, toward more and more complex combinations of 
symbols and of thought beneath the symbolism. Progress in 
the mastery of letters had a corresponding evolution. 

Characteristics of the Greeks. — As we have now reached 
the beginning of organized education in Greece it is well to 

3 Herodotus, VI : 27 ; Thucydides, VII : 29. See also the Thurian 
law as to public education, 6th to 7th century, Diodorus, XII : 12, and 
Solon's law as to compulsory education, Plato, Crito 50, D ; Plutarch, 
Themistocles, 10, speaks of a vote to hire teachers. Conf. yElian, 
VII: 15. 

Aristophanes describes an interesting school scene, — evidently a 
typical one. He tells of Athenian children, in order, distributed ac- 
cording to their district, marching in serried ranks through rain, snow, 
or scorching heat to school; and De Coulanges {op. cit. 295), remarks 
that " The children seem already to understand that they are per- 
forming a public duty." 



5 o THE HIGH SCHOOL 

glance at the peculiar characteristics of the people which dis- 
tinguish them from all other peoples. Only in this way can 
we appreciate their provisions for education. We began to 
note these characteristics in treating of the Homeric period. 
Some of them come to view only in the later Greek period, but 
we may summarize them once for all here and apply them 
partially or in full, as the case demands. 4 

Fundamental ideas and characteristics of the Greeks: — 

1. Sophrosyne (temperantia). — Arete (virtus). — Courage, love 
of country (spontaneous, but not deep). — Eukosimia (grace, es- 
thetic expression in all lines) — Proportion, — harmonious develop- 
ment of physical and mental elements. 

2. Innate love of freedom and independence (free personality). 
Self assertion. — Development for individual primary, for state 
secondary. — Authority of the state from the individual. — Individ- 
uality through the state and in the state is the composite way of 
stating it. 

3. Versatility, many-sided activity. 

4. Power to generalize, idealize, universalize, and power to make 
ideals concrete and objective. — Kept going out from simple life and 
ideas of truth and proportion to a larger life, and thus heightened 
capacity and power. — Intense intellectuality and fearlessness in 
taking up and prosecuting to the end any subject or investigation, 
regardless of issues. — Love of knowledge for its own sake, un- 
fettered by form, religion, or caste. — Creative imagination gave 
form to narrow realities of life. 

5. Religion not abstract. Gods idealized personalities (friendly). 
— Nature and life full of deity. — A joyful religion of freedom and 
spontaneity. — Religious concepts, both the simplest and deepest, 
open to all, not limited, as in Orient. — Saw bright and cheerful 
side. — Moulded all in esthetic lines. 

6. Viewed a virtuous life as a beautiful and happy one, in har- 
mony with self and external relations. — No deep religious sense 
or reverence. No high conception of abstract duty. No strong 
and steady devotion to principle. Not conspicuous for solidity. — 
Not highly developed in truthfulness and other social virtues. — 
Subtle and genial. — In general, showed broad and varied human 
sympathy. 

7. No genius for order and system. 

8. No strong family life; woman subordinate and inferior. 

9. Education instinctive product of life and people, — spontaneous. 

4 This list is made up from various studies of the Greek people 
made by various students of Greek life. Various angles of view help us 
to get broader and more suggestive ideas as to the Greek people and 
their qualities. 



GREECE — EARLY HISTORIC PERIOD 51 

— Also outgrowth of theory and discussion. It was, at its founda- 
tion, a realization of capacity. Central idea was to produce a 
balance in the factors of life. Unity, comprehensiveness, propor- 
tion, aimfulness are conspicuous. — Little system or organization. 

Political and social environment of Greek youth. — Keep- 
ing these characteristics in mind as a guide in interpreting 
institutions we may now consider in detail the scheme of educa- 
tion provided in the period under review. And first as to the 
ideal. That which began to emerge in Homeric Greece has 
grown stronger. The state is still supreme, but the individual 
has grown. In place of a single ruler and his advisory coun- 
cil, or an oligarchy of rulers, we find a democracy of rulers, 
but one in which the individual is still dominated by the state. 
The individual is free to develop himself, to initiate, to mould, 
though always in the line of characteristic Greek thought. 
Individual development through and for the state, or, in other 
words, the realization of capacity for civic life, perhaps 
expresses the ideal of education as nearly as we can compass 
it. Here we have combined the two forces, the enveloping 
state and the developing individual. It is not the first time 
that personality has counted ; Egypt had seen much of it ; but 
it is the first time it has had such ideal conditions. 

Aim of education under Greek conditions. — The aim in 
education in this early Greek period was not merely to train 
for civic life, but to train in accord with the spirit which has 
been indicated above. The ideal could be carried out only by 
the training of a well-balanced individual for state service. 
Body and mind were to be educated as a unit. The esthetic 
principle of proportion dominated educational thought, as it 
dominated Greek thought generally. 

Characteristic elements in Greek education. The curricu- 
lum. — In connection with the subject matter of school train- 
ing the Greeks had a fondness for a terminology of a very 
inclusive nature that has now given place to a narrow and 
prosaic one. From the earliest times they were devoted to 
what they called mousike. 5 In trying to interpret this term 

5 Plato, Protagoras, 326 ; Republic, 376 ff., 404, 522 ; Aristotle, Poli- 
tics, VIII, 3 : 7-12. See also chapter on Plato's and Aristotle's Sec- 
ondary Schools, Chapter VI. 



52 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

we must divest ourselves of all preconceived notions of the 
word, — forget its association with our word, music, or rather 
forget the narrow signification of the word with us. It meant 
that which the Muses blessed and applied to various modes of 
expression in human life, — whether mental or physical. It 
included rhythm of body as well as rhythm of language. It 
applied again to all those symbols and forms that give us 
access to man's spoken or written thoughts, and finally it 
applied to that which is suggested by the quantitative relations 
of society (and which is itself the basis of rhythm), — num- 
ber. Mousike is seen in the primitive scheme, but it became 
more organized, more conscious of its educational functions, 
as time went on. To the simple forms of life to which alone 
the early boy reacted (if we except the germs of literature 
that were referred to in earlier pages) were gradually added 
the higher forms of art, — more elaborate esthetic develop- 
ment in literature, color, and form. Physical education was 
correspondingly organized, so that the boy took up at the 
palaestra 6 a regular course of exercises calculated to make him 
a perfect physical boy, including grace of carriage as well as 
symmetry of body. The whole curriculum may thus be 
summed up by the two expressions mousike and physical 
training. 7 The course evidently had a double aim, first to give 
the boy practical command of the facts of life ; second to culti- 
vate a keen sense of esthetic values expressed in grace of body 
and grace of mind. All may be comprehended in the words 
growing citizen worthy of the Greek state. 8 Around all this 
and permeating it was that education which the boy was get- 
ting by natural means in the life of the community, an educa- 
tion both practical and intellectual, the only education of the 
earlier times. This was giving him increased mastery of folk- 
lore and of the form, spirit, and special characteristics of com- 

6 This was a private building or enclosure. Secondary school boys 
were trained in a public building. 

7 Davidson, Aristotle, 72 ff. Lucian in his Anarcharsis gives a more 
detailed classification. Drawing was sometimes added, at least in 
later times, — Aristotle, Pol., VIII, 3. As to curriculum, compare do. 
VIII, 3 : 7-12. For matters of general interest as to the curriculum 
see Appendix 1, 2. 

8 Davidson, op. cit., 36. 



GREECE — EARLY HISTORIC PERIOD 53 

munity life. Esthetic forms here had a very natural and 
effective ministry. 9 

But it should be noted that old Greek education had a sub- 
stantial moral and religious element in it. One can feel the 
moral element in the choice of material for their simple cur- 
riculum, in the motions of the boys in and out of school, in 
the strong " discipline " of the boy's school life. It was this 
element particularly to which later writers harked back in their 
lamentations over the decadence of education. As to religion, 
it permeated Greek life. The gods, their symbols and their 
worship, surrounded and influenced early Greek life, not 
oppressively, but impressively. 1 * 

Methods in the elementary school. — As to method, read- 
ing was taught by the barest synthetical method, writing more 
concretely, but still synthetically. Arithmetic was presented 
more pedagogically, by objects, finger symbols, and the abacus, 
though the notation and symbols were so cumbrous that only 
the most elementary knowledge was practicable, all that was 
necessary in the earlier and simpler times. The practice 
books in the formal language work were Greece's great epics, 
which admirably met children's interests. 

It will be seen that this curriculum represented a natural 
development. It met the needs and demands of the time in 
an effective way. This is true in a sense of method, — even 
the part of it that applied to letters. The forms of language 
must be learned, and they took the most obvious method of 
learning them. This does not mean that the method was 
pedagogical ; it was not, though it had this pedagogical feature, 
that it gave the child familiarity with a great literature that 
appealed to his interest, before the forms were learned. It 
was the product of an unreflecting and unscientific age, before 
men became conscious of a relation between child-interest, 
child development, and method. This came out later in the 
work of some of the educational philosophers ; but the formal 
method had become so fixed that it probably never yielded to 
the pedagogical insight and suggestions of reformers. 

8 Conf. Aristophanes, Clouds (Monroe's Source Book, 82 ff) ; 
Plutarch, Lycurgus; Thucydides, Paricles' Funeral Oration. See Mon- 
roe, op. cit., 15 ff. 

10 Monroe, op. cit., 82 ff ; Appendix 2. 



54 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Results. — All this, as has been indicated, was the work 
of early school years. It completed the form-work, and gave 
the keys to the recorded inheritances of the race and power to 
record current additions to thought and achievement. 

Education for boys only. — Naturally, in accordance with 
Greek characteristics, even this elementary course was for 
boys only. Girls were restricted to domestic life, and an 
extremely narrow domestic life at that. Greece limited her- 
self here seriously and with serious consequences, but she took 
special heed of her boys and made education compulsory for 
them. 11 

So much for primary education. As shown elsewhere it is 
helpful, if not absolutely necessary, to make brief references 
to this phase of training ; for to understand the real significance 
of secondary education it is desirable to see something of its 
setting and relations. 

Secondary education. — The adolescent boy's education 
became correspondingly organized. 12 But formal education 
had been completed in the elementary period; the adolescent 
had none of it. He doubtless continued his interest in the 
literary products of his race, whether ballad-song, hero-tale, 
or epic, and he could recite on occasion. Music still occupied 
him, but now in a more technical sense. For the most part, 
however, he gave himself to physical exercises and to training 
for civic duties. There were special arrangements for his 
training, but aside from these there was ever present the potent 
training of a Greek environment. 

Method. — The nature and method of this course of train- 
ing are striking. The work was more sustained and more 
serious than that of previous years. But there was freedom 
from irksome restraint, though the youth was constantly 
impressed by his relations to a closely organized community 
that surrounded him, watched his movements, and guided him 
with definite purpose according to a carefully prescribed gen- 
eral plan. As formal education of the school had passed with 
the elementary period, he learned by seeing the things them- 

11 Appendix I, 2; Monroe, op. cit., 82. 

12 Plato, Protag., 326 ; Davidson, op. cit., 85-90 ; Laurie, Pre-Chris- 
tian Educ, 276, 287; Mahaffy, Old Greek Educ, 



GREECE — EARLY HISTORIC PERIOD 55 

selves in full operation, by coming into close touch with them, 
and later by cooperation and service in them, winning the nat- 
ural penalties and rewards which attend such service. He 
learned the laws, but he gained a finer knowledge of them by 
observation and doing. Civic duties were learned by social 
contact and participation, and military duties were mastered 
by a similar method applied to that field of activity. This 
observation and practice, however, were not optional, but com- 
pulsory. The great national games, bringing together delega- 
tions from various sections that were not ordinarily in close 
touch with one another, brought a new kind of participation, 
wider observation, and broader social contact. 

When we come to physical education we find an advanced 
course carried out strictly and systematically in a special public 
building under a special teacher supplied by the state. It is 
probable that this work also was compulsory ; it was so in early 
days. The games again offered stimulus to physical exercise, 
but only for a very few, so far as actual participation went. 

General estimate. — Adolescent education as a whole was 
thus largely through observation and doing. The method was 
concrete and suggestive. The aim was to train a well-balanced 
individual for service in the state. 

Special ceremonies characteristic of the education of the 
adolescent. — But there was another factor in method and 
another course in the curriculum. The boy's induction into 
citizenship was marked by special forms, his initiation cere- 
monies. 13 We found that in early times the characteristic 
part of the adolescent's training took place in this connection 
and gave him mastery of the most important parts of the 
knowledge-accumulations of his tribe. They occupied an 
extended and absorbing period. The ceremonies had now been 
reduced in detail, but they still must have been a not unimpor- 
tant means of impressing the youth who were thus initiated. 
The momentum gained in the ages of their greater prominence 
still gave them meaning and force. 14 They served to clinch the 
adolescent's training and helped to make him a true Greek. 

13 Davidson, op. cit., 89, 90; Mahaffy, op. cit.; Appendix 3. 
14 " On proof of his birth status and his fulfilment of moral and 
physical conditions prescribed by statute or common law, he was 



56 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



General characteristics of Greek education. — All in all 
Greek training was training for power, for capacity, and not 
for mere acquisition. 15 It must be remembered, however, that 
the individual was still distinctly subordinate, especially in the 
earlier part of the period with which we are dealing. Thus 
his range was as yet narrow. It was limited by the old forms 
and bounds that we have found in ancient society (see Chap- 
ter I). But he had begun to have a broader outlook. Sub- 
ordination was not that of the old times. The individual was 
gaining a new position. 

Summary. — The adolescent's education may be summed 
up in the following outline, and may be compared with that of 
the elementary period that is given beside it. 

Education for Early Period, Before the Fifth Century. 

Aims: — Development of capacity of the individual and prepara- 
tion for civic duty in accordance with Greek characteristics. Har- 
mony and balance; education of body and mind as a unit. A 
well-balanced individual for state service. 



Curriculum. 



ELEMENTARY 

Reading, writing and sim- 
ple number work. 

Learning of folk-lore. 

Music, — simple, strong 
songs with lyre accom- 
paniment. 

Physical exercise (in J 
games and palaestra). 
Aimed at rhythm and 
grace and soundness of 
body, — physical excel- 
lence worthy of Greek 
citizenship. 



SECONDARY 

M A. Further familiarity with 
o folk-lore and with great 

u literature of the nation, — 

s through continued reading, 

i recitation, etc. Music, — 

k more definite study. 

e Religious training, — through 

observation and partici- 
pation in choruses and 
festivals. 
Civics — Observation of civic 
and social life of com- 
munity. Laws learned 
and practiced. 



registered in his Deme, his hair was cut, he assumed the character- 
istic citizen dress, was presented to the Athenian people in public 
assembly, was duly armed with typical Greek weapons, and at the 
altar of the canonized daughter of autochthonic Cecrops (a Totem 
father) took the time-honored oath binding him to the support of 
his country. Social as well as religious functions attended these initia- 
tion ceremonies which marked a great epoch in the boy's life." See 
Appendix 3. 
15 Davidson, op cit., 72. 



GREECE — EARLY HISTORIC PERIOD 57 

Mastery of form, spirit, Gymnastics : — More serious 

and special characteris- and sustained course of 

tics of community life. physical training than that 

given in palaestra. This 
course given in gymnasi- 
um. Also games. 

B. Admission as amateur citi- 

zen with religious and so- 
cial ceremonies, — initia- 
tion ceremonies. After 
this, one year of serious 
military training (com- 
paratively mild in Greece) ; 
participation in festivals ; 
one year of actual service 
on frontier of Attica. 

C. Full citizenship. Participa- 

tion in all civic functions. 
Trained by state. This was 
the graduate course of 
Athens. 

Method: — 1. In elementary education. — Reading, — synthetic 
method. — Writing, — imitation, tracing. The pupil made his own 
reading book; hence reading and writing were correlated. Arith- 
metic, — sand, counters, abacus. — Geography and History, — 
through correlation. — Religion and Morals, — through correlation, 
and through observation of and participation in the life of the com- 
munity, in an elementary way, etc. — Gymnastics, — under trainer. 

Imparting, memorizing, imitation were prominent. — (Charts, pic- 
tures, etc., for teaching probably came later.) 

2. In secondary education methods were generally concrete and 
suggestive. Observation, participation, service were prominent. 
Some memory work (learning the laws). — Emulation used as an 
incentive. — Formal training in Gymnasium under scientific train- 
ing-master. — Youth was generally under careful surveillance. 
(Later, young men had a civic organization in imitation of state, 
giving practical training.) 

Notice in secondary education intense physical training, absence 
of formal training, freedom from irksome restraint, concrete and 
suggestive work, social contact and social participation, outward 
look. 

Initiation ceremonies ended one stage of training and introduced 
another. They impressed certain facts of the past and future. A 
characteristic educational force. 

Greek secondary education peculiarly adapted to adoles- 
cence. — It must be acknowledged that this scheme, both 



58 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

subject matter and method, was, in many ways, admirably 
adapted to accomplish the purpose in mind. This will appear 
more pointedly from a study of adolescent characteristics, 16 
which differ, not merely in degree, but in quality, from those 
of other periods of life. 

If we examine the secondary course as developed by the 
Greeks in the light of these characteristics it is plain that it 
was adapted to the boy of secondary age in some noticeable 
features. 

1. It gave opportunity for wider and stronger observation. 

2. It gave expression to adolescent nature and activity in 
many lines. Adolescent physical life that was rampant had an 
outlet in healthful physical exercise and occupation. Civic 
instincts related themselves to the community in vital ways. 
Esthetic stimulus and patriotic employment gave opportunity 
for natural development of the emotional life of the adolescent. 
Stimulating i'deals were all about him, and were handed down 
from the past in an attractive literature; they could readily 
objectify themselves in plans by which the youth related him- 
self to the community. Moral life again had a field for spon- 
taneous growth, under natural and sensible conditions, but 
under definite guidance. 

3. The restraint of form and of careful regulation and sur- 
veillance was there, but mingled with a certain amount of indi- 
vidual freedom and initiative. Where proportion is duly 
regarded this makes the best combination for steadying adoles- 
cent natures. 

4. The tendency was to encourage outlook, rather than 
excessive introspection. 17 The facts and meaning of human 
relations were at hand and could be realized in a healthful 
way, — by interested observation and participation. 

5. Formal training, such as appears in a formal study of 
language, was relegated to the elementary period which takes 
kindly to learning mere form. 

By a kind of intuition the Greeks devised a scheme of adoles- 

16 The author has summarized adolescent characteristics gathered 
from many sources in the Journal of Pedagogy, Vol. 17, pp. 114 ff. 
(1904-5). 

17 Davidson, op. cit., 85-88 ; Laurie, op. cit., 276, 287 ; Mahaffy, op. cit. 



GREECE — EARLY HISTORIC PERIOD 59 

cent education that was, in a rather remarkable degree, suited 
to the secondary school age. A natural development along the 
lines it suggested would have perfected the scheme. But tend- 
encies were at work that served to transform the early sec- 
ondary education into a formal scheme of training, and to 
emphasize formal and unpedagogical methods. The science of 
education lagged behind other sciences. Other matters were 
waiting for development, and attention was given in their direc- 
tion intensively. It is only in the last few years that a scien- 
tific study of the individual and of the relations of the human 
and the culture subject have begun to make us sensitive to 
adolescent needs. We are approaching consciously and scien- 
tifically, though very slowly, the point that the Greeks, and, 
before them, primitive peoples, reached by intuition. When 
we actually reach it we shall find that the early secondary course 
contained the germs of what we are seeking. We shall be able 
to avoid their inconsistencies and fulfil their prophecies. 



APPENDIX 

1. Elements of Greek education. — Plato, Protagoras, speaks of 
early education at home and in the school and goes on to say, " When 
the boy has learned his letters and is beginning to understand what 
is written, as before he understood only what was spoken, they put 
into his hands the works of great poets, which he reads at school; 
in these are contained many admonitions and many tales and praises, 
and encomia of ancient famous men, which he is required to learn 
by heart, in order that he may imitate or emulate these men and 
desire to become like them. Then again the teachers of the lyre take 
similar care that their young disciple is temperate and gets into no 
mischief; and when they have taught him the use of the lyre, they 
introduce him to the poems of other great poets, who are lyric poets; 
and these they set to music, and make their harmonies and rhythms 
quite familiar to the children, in order that they may learn to be 
more gentle and harmonious and rhythmical, and so more fitted for 
speech and action; for the life of man in every part has need of 
harmony and rhythm. Then they send them to the master of gym- 
nastic, in order that their bodies may better minister to the virtuous 
mind, and that the weakness of their bodies may not force them to 
play the coward in war or on any other occasion. This is what is 
done by those who have the means, and those who have the means 
are the rich ; their children begin education soonest and leave off latest. 
When they have done with masters, the state again compels them to 



60 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

learn the laws, and live after the pattern which they furnish, and 
not after their own fancies; and just as in learning to write the 
writing-master first draws lines with a style for the use of the young 
beginner, and gives him the tablet and makes him follow the lines, 
so the city draws the laws, which were the invention of good law- 
givers who were of old time; these are given to the young man in 
order to guide him in his conduct whether as ruler or ruled; and 
he who transgresses them is to be corrected, or, in other words called 
to account." — Protagoras, 326. 

2. The old and the new. — Aristophanes in his Clouds takes up the 
matter of education, contrasting the old and the new. The whole 
picture is of course one of irony, and though the description of the 
old is a serious one, we may perhaps question whether there is not 
a temptation to exaggerate and color. Still the account is a useful one 
to use in connection with other material. Here is a brief summary 
of certain parts of the passage, showing the nature of the old educa- 
tion : — The boy was to be quiet. Boys from the same quarter marched 
in good order to the school of the harp-master naked and in a body, even 
if it snowed "as thick as meal." 

The master taught the old substantial music, not present quavers. 
Boys were to maintain a virile, modest, respectful attitude during in- 
struction, and generally. Bodies were not anointed below the navel, 
so that they "wore the appearance of blooming health." Strict dis- 
cipline was customary. 

3. Initiation. — At eighteen, if he fulfilled requirements, moral and 
physical, he was entered as a regular member of his Deme. After 
this he was introduced to the whole people at a public assembly, was 
armed, and took the oath. His induction into citizenship was attended 
with religious ceremonies that remind us of, and, with other attendant 
ceremonies, are probably a relic of, prehistoric initiation ceremonies. 
He now served two years as soldier, the first year drilling near Athens, 
learning the art, and taking part in public festivals, the second year 
undertaking more serious military service. It was evidently a " harden- 
ing process," while it afforded an excellent opportunity for becoming 
perfectly acquainted with the topography of the country. He may also 
have taken part in citizen duties in the city, in assembly and courts. 
At the close of the two years, if he stood a final test, he became a 
full-fledged citizen. See Davidson, Arist., 89, 90, and Mahaffy, Old 
Greek Educ. 



SECONDARY EDUCATION IN GREECE — LATER HISTORIC PERIOD 

Contrasts between the periods of Greek development. — 

Greek life during the period discussed in the last chapter 
represented an immense advance over primitive life. The city- 
state had been developed and had already existed for an 
indefinite period, and culture forms and culture material had 
advanced conspicuously. But life was still simple. The social 
and political unit was narrow, confined, self-centered. While 
individual freedom had made some gains, it had little breadth 
or scope, to such an extent was the individual dominated by the 
state. Thought had certainly been broadened and fined, but 
those simple, strong primitive ideas that we have noted in 
other chapters still made themselves felt and retained much 
of their pristine vigor. The Greeks had not penetrated and 
analyzed the world without, much less the world within. But 
a fuller entrance into these two worlds was at hand. Psycho- 
logical development and historical development, reacting on 
one another, 1 brought a new epoch. The later Greek period 
was characterized by wider contact with the external world 
and the world of thought, and by consonant changes in men's 
relations to these objective and subjective worlds. 2 Athens 
now became self conscious. As a natural corollary of all this 
the individual assumed greater importance, — even became 
dominant. 

Changes in the later Greek period. — In connection with 
this evolution four points need special notice here. 

I. Greek education had strikingly increased in recent cen- 
turies. Books multiplied and became the natural repositories 

1 It would be interesting to follow this out in detail and go further 
into the evolution of a new Greece, but it would not be germane to our 
main purpose. The general statement as to causes must suffice here. 

2 Appendix I ; Monroe, History of Education ; Mahaffy, op. cit., 84 ; 
Kirkpatrick, Amer. Jour, of Educ, 24 : 453 ff. 

61 



62 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

of the most attractive thoughts and experiences of the race and 
the most intense thinking of the time. They thus, in large 
measure, took the place of oral tradition that was character- 
istic of primitive times. 

2. Language had developed in literary, artistic, and scien- 
tific lines, becoming more expressive, complex, and philosoph- 
ical. Hence men turned more to the world of books, less to 
the world of things. The change brought with it two new edu- 
cational agencies, one found in contact with and study of 
books, the other found in the exposition of literature in the 
free public theatre and at the international literary contests 
during the celebration of Greek games. 

3. Music and art had changed in character. The signifi- 
cance and value of detail were better appreciated. Technique 
and modes of appeal to sentiment and the emotions began to be 
studied. A wonderful artistic sense had been developed. The 
broadening process was fully as marked here as in other direc- 
tions. A new world had been discovered in art, as in other 
fields of mental effort, — a subjective world. 

4. Physical training received less attention than before; 
the strict traditional regimen had been relaxed, as related to 
both the individual and the state. 

The underlying causes. — But all these things were but 
secondary; they were merely phenomena. There were two 
far more fundamental matters that give us a deeper insight 
into the times and help us to understand their spirit : — 

I. More scope for the individual.— The community had 
ceased to think so fully for the individual and to impose its 
dictum unalterable upon him. Tribal standards in this sense 
had passed. There was thus more scope for individual stand- 
ards. The old unity and compactness of organization had been 
outgrown. New unities were forming. 3 The reforms that go 
by the names of Draco, Solon, and Cleisthenes represented one 

3 The new of course required a long development before it could 
become stable and take hold of the populace sufficiently to produce a 
solidarity comparable with the old. Meantime social and political life 
were liable to be ragged and to court temporary disaster. But men 
did not make the modern mistake of postponing democracy because 
conditions were not perfect. Democracy is educative. Rightly guided 
and balanced it grows securely. 



GREECE — LATER HISTORIC PERIOD 63 

side of this change, the external. But there was another and 
more important side, the psychological. The individual had 
asserted himself, and social organization had become secure 
enough to allow him more latitude. The community was thus 
prepared to advance to something higher than was possible in 
the old tribal days. To these changing conditions again must 
be added the wider and more complex national relations that 
called for new power to direct and utilize them. 

The Greek citizen must be prepared to meet these broader 
relations with the outside world and the opportunities they 
offered for diplomacy and personal and civic advancement 
through national and international politics. He must meet also 
the still greater demands that a new era of thought and indi- 
vidual freedom made upon him. To do this he must have 
power of independent thought, power to analyze, compare, 
judge, discuss, power to throw his personality into new prem- 
ises and syntheses. In a word, he must have dialectic power, 
if the community and the individual were to rise above the level 
of the past. It might be often at the expense of individual 
damage and even destruction, if not steadied by the balance of 
a just education that it was the business of the state to give. 
But these are mere accidents for which a great evolutionary 
movement is not responsible, and for which it does not stay. 
The dialectic method was a natural and logical growth and a 
vital condition for working out the genius of the new epoch. 
Socrates was not so much its discoverer as a typical exponent 
of what the times produced. Some of his reported discussions 
represent a drama in which tradition and newly springing inde- 
pendence played leading roles. This represented the internal 
side of the change, — the psychological. 

These conditions required a new linguistic development, if 
the Greek citizen of the day was to assert himself and meet 
the situation to which forces without and within were direct- 
ing him. He must have power to formulate and express his 
thought effectively, if the power of dialectic was to have due 
issue in swaying men's minds. This was a sine qua non for 
personal advancement. 

2. The individual the center. — All this naturally modi- 
fied Greek ideals. In the buoyancy of the new times, and 



64 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

under the spur of individual freedom, whose very newness 
excited the adolescent spirit of the nation, the tendency was 
toward individualism, — not the individual for the state, as 
formerly, but the individual for himself, and the state also 
for him. This made the individual the center of culture and 
education and led him to lay siege to everything that would 
minister to his power and enjoyment. 4 The ideal was most 
sensitively balanced and led to evil as easily as to good — more 
easily, because the ideal was only a partial one. Hence the 
brilliance and tragedy of later Greek history. From the same 
conditions also came that other individualism whose summum 
bonum was cultivated leisure (diagoge), which has given us 
charming pictures of classical life, though marred by civic 
inaction and the suggestion of decadence. 

Graphic comparison of early and later periods. — Looking 
at the period as a whole, from about the sixth century to the 
third, we may make a brief comparative summary of its char- 
acteristics as follows: 

EARLY PERIOD 5 LATE PERIOD 5 

1. City state small. Citizens I. City state larger. Citizen- 

few. An aristocracy. ship broader. Intense de- 

mocracy. 

2. Eternal relations simple, nar- 2. External relations broader, 

row ; internal relations sim- more complex. Wider con- 

pie, tact with other civilizations. 

Internal relations broader, 
more complicated. Many- 
sided life. 

3. Thought simple, concrete, ob- 3. Thought more complex, deal- 

jective, outward. ing more with details and 

meanings of things; sub- 
jective. 

4 We find here that the new features in social organization and the 
new element in method beginning to appear in the Homeric epoch, have 
reached their outermost limit. The new outdid itself and, in a way, 
developed a virtue into a vice. But this must not obscure the char- 
acteristic contributions that Greece made to education, — individual in- 
itiative and opportunities for individual development. 

6 The generalizations are made up from many sources, — Mahaffy, 
op. et loc. cit.; Kirkpatrick, loc. cit.; Laurie, op. cit., 306 ff. ; Monroe, 
op. cit., 84 ff., 91 ff. ; De Coulanges, op. cit., 475 et al. ; Aristotle, 
'Pol., VIII, 1:3; Plato, Rep., 499, 524, 527-30. 532-3 ; Appendix I, 2, 3. 
See also Botsford and Sihler, Hellenic Civilization. 



GREECE — LATER HISTORIC PERIOD 65 

\. Literature expressed great ob- 4. Literature more artistic, 
jective facts, in simple nar- more philosophical, dealing 

rative, or in simple song. more with inner meanings 

and relations. 

5. Art also more or less objec- 5. In art more attention to de- 

tive, representing general- tail and effect of detail; 

ized ideas in concrete form. more attention to expres- 

Appealed by wholes. sion of emotions. 

6. Norms external, in tradition. 6. Norms within, reasoned for 

self; transferred to others 
through special method, not 
by the fiat of tradition alone. 

7. State supreme. 7. Individual supreme. 

Summary of the demands of the new period. — Altogether 
then the new period shows a new attitude toward inheritances, 
more individuality, more personal responsibility, greater free- 
dom of thought. 6 New relations, new interests, new ambi- 
tions were pressing the young Athenian forward. With these 
changes had come a richer growth of acquisition in all direc- 
tions. New studies and new methods also demanded admis- 
sion to the educational program. Leadership, which might be 
the aim of any true Athenian, depended upon the effective use 
of words, — not the old natural language power, but a studied 
skill. The orator became an ideal. Audiences, whether of 
the spoken or of the written word, were more intelligent, more 
critical, more exacting, and acted as an external pressure to 
supplement the inner stimulus that came to the individual from 
his higher mental development. Thus larger intellectual attain- 
ment, more resources for instructing and illustrating, wider 
and more technical language power were needed. 

A new curriculum and a new method. — As to the schools, 
a broad and rigid course in linguistics, involving a knowledge of 
the whole realm of literature, was the natural means of gain- 
ing the desired end, — training in language such as had never 
existed before. The sciences of grammar and rhetoric date 
from this time. The two-fold music e that had formed a single 
unity in the old curriculum was divided. Each of its parts had 
become so large that it formed a distinct department in educa- 

6 See De Coulanges' Ancient City (one of the most striking and 
appreciative studies yet made), 470 ff. 



66 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

tion. " Letters " and " music " were henceforth distinct in at 
least one great series of schools. 

Dialectic. — But ideas must come before expression. For 
expression a study of dialectics was needed to give it point and 
effect. The new linguistic training might afford opportunity 
for much of this, but it must be supplemented by the other 
study that partook of the nature of psychology and philosophy 
and provided both matter and method. 

A new curriculum had thus come into being, consisting of 
the old studies developed and broadened and the new studies 
rising out of the new conditions. Some one has said that the 
early Greek curriculum produced habits, but that there was 
needed a further education on the intellectual side to guide, 
and free habits. The best of the new could do this. The 
whole of the new was not found in any one place, and it was 
found in few schools, but it was a part of Greek life and was 
calculated to give a more extensive and intensive intellectual 
development and to produce technical skill. 

New teachers. — But new courses and new methods re- 
quired new teachers. These were the sophists. Their appear- 
ance was not accidental nor sudden. They grew nat- 
urally out of the new times. They offered both wide knowl- 
edge of things that were attracting attention, and train- 
ing in thought, thought method, and expression. Their cur- 
riculum, if it could be called such, was a very inclusive and 
ambitious one, covering the whole range of knowledge. Their 
aim was to make the individual supreme. As ever, there were 
two classes of teachers, — those who were thorough and pro- 
fessional, and those who were superficial and unprofessional. 
The former aimed at a thoroughly trained man and founded 
their work on principles. 7 The others aimed at immediate 
individual success, made much of short-cut methods, and by 
their agnostic attitude tended to upset absolute values and 
standards and make each man his own norm. They were the 
proprietors of the " thinking-shops." 8 

7 As to the two classes of sophists, and sophists generally, see Ap- 
pendix i, 2, 3 ; Davidson, op. cit., ioi ft*. ; Kirkpatrick, Laurie, Mahaffy, 
op. et he. cit.; Monroe, op. cit., 68, 85, 95 ff. ; Plato, Rep., 493, 496, 497. 

8 " I will go myself to the thinking-shop and get taught," — Monroe, 
op. cit, 68. 



GREECE — LATER HISTORIC PERIOD 67 

Two aims. — We can make our ideas of the new education 
clearer and more definite by analyzing it and distinguishing its 
aims. In the course of our discussion two ideals have been 
prominent,- 1, rhetorical supremacy, command of winning 
forms ; 2, intellectual supremacy, power to discuss reasons and 
to initiate. Correlatively there were two great objects in 
life,- 1, influence in public life, power to impress and express, 
in which self was the center; 2, cultured leisure, in which 
again self was the center. To be just we should perhaps dis- 
cover a third object that would combine the other two. These 
objects defined educational aims. 

Two series of schools, 1. Schools of Rhetoric. — It was 
thus natural that the Sophist schools should split into two great 
series:- 1. Schools of Rhetoric, the best type of which is 
found in the school of Isocrates. 9 This great teacher built on a 
good secondary course of training in grammar and literature, 
taken before entering his school. He believed that higher edu- 
cation should be "practical, rational, comprehensive/' and he 
emphasized training in three lines, — defining objects, adapting 
means, and developing power through effort. These schools 
of rhetoric, with their presuppositions, took the most character- 
istic parts of the sophist course, linguistic studies, general infor- 
mation studies, and oratory. Linguistics were the core of the 
curriculum. 

It must not be supposed, however, from the statement that a 
rhetorical school built its work upon a course of secondary 
training, that nothing inside the school was of a secondary 
nature. It must have been true that instruction in at least 
some of these schools was partly, and probably largely, of a 
secondary nature, just as a large part of the early university 
course in the Middle Ages was of this character and was 
applied to boys in their early 'teens. 

Method. — Method in these schools was new in some of 
its elements. It probably still included the traditional prin- 
ciples of imparting information and memorizing; but in addi- 
tion there was now built up an elaborate system of language 
training, including imitation, practice, and drill, with abundant 

9 Appendix 4; Laurie, op. et. loc. cit.; Monroe, op. cit., 98, 100, 105-108. 



68 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

rules. Formal language work was elaborated with much 
detail. 10 

2. Schools of philosophy. — In these schools the con- 
spicuous leaders were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Plato 
and Aristotle tried to outline a state and a system of educa- 
tion that would unite individual and community interests. 11 
Their work as a whole was opposed to the formal work of the 
other sophists. It emphasized the development of power 
rather than mere communication and class-room mechanics, 
the intellect rather than memory, device, and formal practice. 
Here were developed those studies and methods that may be 
characterized as philosophical and scientific. They applied to 
the acquisition of knowledge of both the outer and the inner 
world. 

It was in connection with this class of schools particularly, 
though not exclusively, that one of the characteristic feelings 
of the Greek race came into the ideals of education. The true 
Greek had a very keen idea as to what accorded with Greek 
dignity. Certain things were " liberal," worthy of a free- 
man ; other things were " illiberal," and to be avoided. Any- 
thing that was extreme or of a mercenary character was illib- 
eral. The mean in the non-commercial pursuits and those that 
involved higher intellectuality was a just object of effort. 
These ideas colored Greek education and were especially promi- 
nent in Plato and Aristotle. 12 

Method. — Method here was decidedly less formal than in 
the first series of schools and was better, but not perfectly, 
adapted to adolescent interests. It involved thought work 
(dialectic), active participation of both pupil and teacher, 
familiar converse, lectures. Method thus became more 
pedagogical. 

If we should attempt to specify the feature of Greek educa- 

10 Conf . Plato, Protag., 326. 

If we should consider method more in detail and in its wider sig- 
nification, as it showed itself in later Greek education, we might imagine 
we had reached modern days. Prize contests, examinations, and 
various student customs suggest that it is difficult for us to devise 
anything new as to externals. 

11 Monroe, Lectures on the History of Education. 

12 Aristotle, Pol. ; Plato, Rep. ; Conf. Cicero, De Of., 1 : 42. 



GREECE — LATER HISTORIC PERIOD 69 

tion that was most significant for the future we should most 
appropriately single out that element of method, or form of 
method, that is called dialectic. It has been characterized gen- 
erally from the point of view of results. It is better defined 
as a process. To describe it as the questioning method is very 
superficial. Dialectic involved, first, development of the indi- 
vidual as opposed to mass teaching. In the second place, it 
required participation on the part of the pupil. In the third 
place, and most significantly, it led to investigation of facts 
and problems by healthful and stimulating inductive methods 
till the ultimate truth was reached. Speaking generally it was 
of course all a questioning process, but of a very comprehensive 
nature. It was systematic, scientific, thought-stimulating. It 
involved rigid analysis as a basis for new and sounder synthesis. 
In this way it exercised all the powers and brought real devel- 
opment, both from the point of view of the individual and from 
that of the subject studied. For the first time then the old 
process of rote-learning had been seriously invaded. While 
the ancient method was destined to be used for some purposes 
and to have large influence in some cases and in some periods, 
the new method was to have increasing influence till it occupied 
the field. 13 

Differentiation in curricula. — At first secondary and 
higher education were perhaps not very distinct. It may all 
be designated as higher education. But in time there probably 
came a differentiation, so that the secondary curriculum may 
be regarded as approximating the following form : 14 

13 The method may be described a little more in detail as follows : — 
It is proposed to discover the truth in a certain direction. At the outset 
a question is raised as to the first basal fact from which we may pro- 
ceed toward the end in view. This may be reached directly, or indi- 
rectly by first removing a false assumption or opinion. Then the sec- 
ond fact that will serve the main purpose is discovered by a similar 
process of investigation. And so we proceed by a process of investiga- 
tion, elimination, suggestion, construction till the final result is reached, 
which represents in a sense the summation of all the partial results 
attained along the way. Dialectic is the parent of all objective methods, 
whether characterized as inductive, developmental, or laboratory. 

14 Aristotle, Pol., VIII, 3:7-12; Plato, Rep., 404, 424, 427-30, 432-3; 
Laurie, op. cit., 306 ff.; Mahaffy, op. cit., 53 ff., 57 ff., 76, 78 ff.; Kirk- 
patrick, in Amer. Jour, of Educ, 24: 453 ff. It should be borne in mind 
that different schools and classes of schools probably made special 
selections and gave different emphases. 



7 o THE HIGH SCHOOL 

A. Linguistics, — grammar, literature, elementary rhetoric. 

B. Science, — arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, geography. Ele- 

mentary, uncorrected, informational work. In later ado- 
lescence there probably came more systematic science and 

C. The introduction to philosophy, dialectics. 

D. Music. More emotional. More finesse than formerly. 

E. Instruction through theatre and games. 

F. Physical training, changed in form and aims. Less purposeful 

and strenuous. Proportion between bodily and mental educa- 
tion broken. Man and citizen separated. 
Method : — In linguistics the so-called classical method, formal, 
full of " exercises " and drills. The study of elementary 
science was correlated with that of linguistics. It was acci- 
dental. (The study of advanced science and philosophy in 
later adolescence was conducted by inductive and dialectic 
methods.) 

Greek contributions to education. — Formal schools were 
now established for both the elementary and the secondary 
period. The formal school of books for adolescents took the 
place of the practical school of observation and spontaneous 
suggestive life. With distinct loss there was, however, distinct 
gain. The intellectual field was opening. On the curriculum 
side certain culture subjects were developed that eventually, if 
we add Alexandrine influence and the Roman genius for gram- 
mar, were to grow into the " seven liberal arts," — the 
" trivium " and the " quadrivium." In the realm of method 
we find that the process of education had become more 
developmental. 

Problems for the new era. — It remained for coming cen- 
turies to regulate education in the new field and to make method 
more pedagogical and healthful. It remained also to enlarge 
and define aims and to direct means definitely to their fulfil- 
ment. 15 For with this influx of new subjects and new thoughts 
it was natural that aims should be imperfect and means inade- 
quate, and that views as to ends and aims should be unsettled. 16 
Greek education, however, had inherited and developed certain 
principles and forms, and above all, a certain spirit, and these 
had a long rule, 17 reaching on into the new era. 

15 Appendix; Laurie, op. cit., 312 ff. 

16 Appendix ; Aristotle, Pol., VIII ; 2, 3 ; Plato, Rep., 404. 

17 Laurie, op. cit, 311; Aristotle, op. cit., VIII; 3; Plato, Rep., 376 ff., 
522. 



GREECE — LATER HISTORIC PERIOD 71 



APPENDIX 

I. The sophists. — Speaking of the change in the strict limits of 
early ideas and organization and the evolution of new ideals, De 
Coulanges (in The Ancient City, pp. 474 ff.) says': — "The sophists 
came afterwards (after Pythagoras and Anaxagoras), and exercised 
more influence than these two great minds. They were men eager 
to combat old errors. In the struggle which they entered against 
whatever belonged to the past, they did not spare the institutions 
of the city more than they spared religious prejudices. They boldly 
examined and discussed the laws which still reigned in the state and 
in the family. They went from city to city, proclaiming new principles, 
teaching, not precisely indifference to the just and the unjust, but a 
new justice, less narrow, less exclusive than the old, more humane, 
more rational, and freed from the formulas of preceding ages. This 
was a hardy enterprise, which stirred up a tempest of hatred and rancor. 
They were accused of having neither religion, nor morals, nor pa- 
triotism. The truth is that they had not a very well settled doctrine, 
and thought they had done enough when they had attacked old 
prejudices. They moved, as Plato says, what before had been immov- 
able. They placed the rule of religious sentiment and that of politics 
in the human conscience, and not in the customs of ancestors, in im- 
movable tradition. They taught the Greeks that to govern a state it 
was not enough to appeal to old customs and sacred laws, but that 
men should be persuaded and their wills should be influenced. For 
the knowledge of ancient customs they substituted the art of reasoning 
and speaking, — dialectics and rhetoric. Their adversaries quoted tra- 
dition to them, while they, on the other hand, employed eloquence and 
intellect." 

" When reflection had thus been once awakened man no longer 
wished to believe without giving a reason for his belief, or to be 
governed without discussing his institutions. The habit of free ex- 
amination became established in men's homes and in the public squares." 
Here was the foundation of democracy. 

" Socrates, while reproving the abuse which the sophists " (better, 
certain sophists) "made of the right to doubt, was still of their school. 
Like them he rejected the empire of tradition and believed that the 
rules of conduct were graven in the human conscience. He differed 
from them only in this; he studied conscience religiously, and with a 
firm desire to find there an obligation to be just and to do good. 
He ranked truth above custom, and justice above law. He separated 
morals from religion; before him men never thought of a duty except 
as a command of the ancient gods. He showed that the principle 
of duty is in the human mind. In all this, whether he wished it or 
not, he made war upon the city worship. — The revolution which the 
sophists commenced, and which Socrates had taken up with more 
moderation, was not stopped by the death of the old man. Greek 



72 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

society was enfranchised more and more, daily, from the empire of 
old beliefs and old institutions." 

(These remarks are exceedingly interesting, especially when taken 
in connection with the same author's study of the primitive organiza- 
tion and thought of the Aryans to which his book is devoted. We 
cannot understand such movements as went on in the later Greek period 
unless they are considered in the light of a knowledge of primitive 
culture.) 

2. Some superficial sophist schools. — Character of sophist schools, 
— learning an easy accomplishment. " I will go myself to the thinking 
shop and get taught." Monroe's Source Book, 68. Conf. also Mon- 
roe's Source Book, 67 ff. 

3. The making of an orator. — " What gymnastic is for the body, 
philosophy is for the mind. In the one as in the other the pupil learns 
first the technical rudiments, and then how to combine them. The 
physical and the mental training will alike improve natural powers. 
But the master of the palaestra cannot make a great athlete, nor the 
teacher of philosophy a great speaker." To make a great speaker " three 
things are needed — capacity, training, and practice ; capacity, which 
includes intellect, voice, and nerve, is the chief requisite; practice 
however can by itself make a good speaker; training is by far the least 
important of the three; it may be complete and yet may be rendered 
useless by the absence of a single quality, nerve. Do not suppose that 
my claims are modest only when I address you, but larger when I 
speak to my pupils. In an essay, published when I first began to 
teach, the excessive pretensions of some teachers are expressly blamed." 
(Other passages suggest that there are two classes of sophists.) 

Varied results. — " The success of the sophists is in fact equal to 
that of any other class of teachers. Some of their pupils become power- 
ful debaters ; others become competent teachers ; all become more 
accomplished members of society, better critics, more prudent advisers. 
And what proves the training to be scientific is that all bear the 
stamp of a common method. Those who despise such culture assume 
that practice, which develops every other faculty, is useless to the 
intellect ; that the human mind can educate the instincts of horses 
and dogs, but cannot train itself; that tame lions and learned bears are 
possible, but not instructed men." (Isocrates), Monroe's Source Book, 
91, 94, 104, 105. 

4. Isocrates and Quintilian. — The notes as to Isocrates will in- 
dicate a connecting link between Greek education and Quintilian. We 
can trace the decadence from Quintilian down, in Rome, as we do 
from Isocrates down, in Greece. 



VI 

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN PLATO AND ARISTOTLE 

Position of Greek theorists in education. — Greek theorists 
in education have influenced educational thought in other cen- 
turies and in other countries more than in their own times and 
country. They probably had little effect upon the secondary 
schools of Greece. In fact they had little time to do so, 
before the purely national character and organization of these 
schools were broken. Historically they represented a reaction 
against the extreme individualism of the times, which was a 
disintegrating force. They tried to devise a scheme of educa- 
tion that might counteract evils and conserve true Greek 
ideals. From the point of view of the science of education 
they were the first to analyze the educational process, and they 
gave us our first books on pedagogy, though it would be too 
much to call them systematic treatises on the subject. The 
student of the history and philosophy of education finds these 
personalities and books of unique interest and value. We need 
to study them briefly here, not simply because they played so 
prominent a part in the evolution of Greek educational ideas, 
but particularly because such a study will give us, from a new 
view-point, an idea of the main tendencies at work in Greece. 

Comparison of two ways of studying education. — Plato's 
analysis of the educational process is philosophic, and he works 
largely by philosophic instinct. His mysticism, added to, or 
rather forming the motive force of his enthusiastic specula- 
tions, lands him in the transcendental by a natural process 
through which it is always delightful to follow him. Aristotle's 
analysis, on the other hand, is scientific, and his logic gives 
him a fairly consistent and practical scheme of education, as 
judged by the views of his time. It is interesting also to note 
that in his analysis he lays the foundation for the science of 
educational psychology. We are to ascertain here not all the 

73 



74 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

details of these writers' views as to education but the contribu- 
tions they made to the pedagogy of the secondary school. The 
two appendices to this chapter will give detailed accounts of 
their plans and also present graphic summaries that may be 
compared with those in previous chapters. 

Common basis. — Both Plato and Aristotle built their 
theories on a civic idea embodied in an ideal state which they 
made the foundation of their arguments. Plato conceived 
two states, a transcendental one in his Republic, and a practical 
one in his Laws. Aristotle, through a double induction, also 
conceived a practical state, but one inferior to Plato's. 1 Greece 
always based her education on a civic idea however. We are 
concerned with this idea here only because it was now first 
embodied in a definite science of education, as science was con- 
ceived in those days. In each case education was to develop 
intellectual power and balance suited to leadership and general 
civic duties. 

The curriculum purified. — Both writers took the typical 
Greek curriculum for adolescents, — gymnastic and music (in 
the wider sense). In the practical working out of this cur- 
riculum, however, Plato, in particular, tried to give a larger idea 
to studies, as has been indicated. Both writers tried to purify 
studies of their weaker elements and to bring them back to 
something of the simplicity of earlier days and to the grace 
and balance that accorded with their own ideas. 

Contributions to educational thought and practice. De- 
velopment emphasized. — But it is in the direction of prin- 
ciples and method that these writers are most distinctive and 
suggestive. In their model educational states the two writers 
anticipated the great general principle that education does not 
implant, but merely develops, 2 which marks the real dividing 
line between Occidental and Oriental education. 

1 Plato's state in his Laws comes nearer reality than either of the 
others, but he allows certain artificialities and limitations that still 
make it a theoretical state. He recognizes however the impracticability 
and inimitability of his highest ideals and comes as close as he can 
to real conditions. Notwithstanding his theory his regulations, includ- 
ing those for education, seem to grow out of a practical realization, 
from his point of view, of state conditions. His laws are suggested 
by social needs and are calculated to develop an all-around good man. 

2 Stated fully by Plato ; implied by Aristotle. 



PLATO AND ARISTOTLE 75 

Harmony and proportion. — Again it is noticeable that 
they emphasized harmony and proportion of life as one of the 
guiding principles of education. They made a science of that 
which before had been a matter of instinct. Harmony and 
proportion however might be merely external. They could 
not of themselves produce the stability that Greek genius 
needed. Greek nature must be steadied by a real search for 
truth, involving the highest exercise of self-activity. 

Not facts, but ideas. — Plato with fine feeling seems to 
have discovered this truth. He made the goal of education 
philosophic insight that opened up the inner meaning of har- 
mony. Put simply the principle was this, not facts, but the 
ideas beneath the facts are the objects of quest in education. 

The process of attainment. Dialectic. — The process of 
attainment was in accord with this great end. It was to be 
genuinely pedagogical, leading from the concrete and objective 
to the ideal and philosophic. This was the dialectic process 
described in the last chapter. This aim, this principle, and 
this process he brought forward and made the distinguishing 
features of his work. Put into practice they would take the 
student into a new world and give him real insight, a distinct 
and very significant gain. They would affect not only method, 
but the studies of the curriculum. They involved in the best 
way the freedom of individual development, and so finally 
brought into education the idea that best characterized the new 
epoch. At the same time they were a guaranty against the 
extravagance of individualism that rises when it is separated 
from its principle, i. e., they supplied a natural corrective calcu- 
lated to produce poise and balance for counteracting that nat- 
ural and excessive mobility of Greek nature that led young 
men to take sudden flights in unbalanced action and made them 
self-centered, catching at the advantage of the moment. 

An intuition for adolescent motif. — In suggesting this 
principle and aim in the secondary period Plato showed that he 
appreciated the status of the adolescent. The search for the 
great thought beneath forms and facts, the quest of the ideal, 
inspires the adolescent and stimulates his best effort. Inspira- 
tion and appeals to the imagination are wonderful motive forces 
in secondary school method. Plato thus made a much needed 



76 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

distinction between elementary and secondary method. Ele- 
mentary education in his scheme contents itself with simple 
learning processes. Secondary education gets at fundamental 
meanings, relations, ideals, in the learning. 3 This is one of 
Plato's most typical contributions to the principles of educa- 
tion. In the formal times that followed it was obscured ; it is 
now coming into prominence again. 

Aristotle takes up the aim from a different view-point and 
brings in the culture (diagoge) idea, thus introducing the 
thought of a liberal education as a means toward a higher civic 
life. Apparently also he makes it an end. But it is fair to 
assume that he is thinking of educating men to a high and most 
productive use of the leisure that all freemen had in one degree 
or another. 

The teacher. — The teacher is the best part of method. 
It is natural that thinkers on education should give special 
attention in this direction. Plato and Aristotle give some of 
their best suggestions as to teachers. The integrity of their 
states required special solicitude here. Plato in particular goes 
into detail concerning the high character and general excellence 
of his teachers, who are to be possessed of the fundamental 
ideas and principles on which his scheme of education is built. 

Freedom, not education by the rod. — In pursuing their 
plan of education both writers insist upon giving the pupil 
not only freedom, but the right stimulus to take hold of and 
appreciate and appropriate what is needed in the educational 
process. In their view the old notion of education by the rod 
is unworthy of free natures. Yet education was to be com- 
pulsory. Aristotle, particularly, is very insistent here. This 
is, however, a matter of school economy, not of school method. 
There is all the difference in the world between " compulsory 
education " and education by compulsion. 

" Special training and general ability." — One detail as 
to method, or rather as to the training value of studies, is inter- 
esting to note here, in view of the discussions provoked by the 
theory of education as adjustment. In treating of arithmetic 
Plato is particular to make it clear that he believes in the special 
disciplinary value of the study and that he is firmly convinced 

3 Plato, Rep., 537. 



PLATO AND ARISTOTLE 77 

that special training gives general ability. This is probably the 
first formal statement in educational literature of a doctrine that 
contains a partial truth, but, stated absolutely, is inherently false. 

Their chief service to method. — The most important con- 
tribution to method that these authors made was their illustra- 
tion of the meaning and value of dialectic, which they compre- 
hended more fully, and consequently applied further, than 
their predecessors, whose initial development of this method 
has been explained in the previous chapter. Thought, experi- 
ment, investigation, search for reality, the inspiration of large 
ideas and relations, all of them keys to adolescent power if 
shaped rightly so as to fit the adolescent not the adult lock, were 
idealized. This meant development. This idea of develop- 
ment, as contrasted with imparting knowledge, was the most 
notable characteristic of their method and put them far beyond 
their times. 

An aristocratic education with limitations. — As to the 
application of educational privilege, both writers, true to 
Greek ideas, provide an aristocratic education. But we now 
for the first time find a reasoned circumscription. Plato 
develops the more sensible and taking scheme in this particu- 
lar, making lines of demarcation that are far from rigid. 
Aristotle is coldly and dogmatically exclusive. Probably both 
writers, in their attempt to systematize education and to main- 
tain more regular civic principles, are more restrictive than was 
the practice of the Greeks. 

Education of both sexes. — In one way, however, Plato 
broke away from typical Greek ideas, for in his state of the 
Laws he provided that girls and boys should have substantially 
the same education. It would almost seem that he was near 
the line of universal education. 

School administration. — We should note finally that these 
authors are careful to provide definitely for educational 
administration. Plato does this rather mystically in his 
Republic. But the same author in his Laws, and Aristotle in 
his Politics do it with more definiteness, as a part of state 
machinery. With " Directors of Education " in the one 
scheme, and a general " Minister of Education " and a " Min- 
ister " for each branch of education, in the other scheme, school 



;8 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

interests, instead of being left to private judgment, as had been 
the way generally in Greece, are to be fully regulated by the 
state, and to have something of the impressiveness and watch- 
ful care that primitive education had shown. 

The contributions of these noted educators to secondary 
education have to do with its spirit rather than with its form. 
Altogether it is as a beginning of what was to be, rather than 
as an indication of what was, that we consider their work here. 

Summary. — It is perhaps not unfair to say that Greek 
education, as we saw it in Chapters IV and V, was rather 
spontaneous than studied. It was an inspiration, an intuition. 
The Greeks in practice never organized or systematized any- 
thing in education. From all that has been said, and from 
other details given elsewhere, 4 we find that these theorists 
supplied what was generally neglected. But times and condi- 
tions did not provide an opportunity to make their gains gen- 
eral, and the theorists were too much educational recluses to 
impress themselves in practical application on any wide scale. 
In fact their plans as a whole were of such a nature that it was 
impracticable to put them to the test then or later. We are 
thus left for concrete results about where we were at the end 
of Chapter V. Succeeding educators however were inspired 
by their work and applied many of their ideas in the new sys- 
tems of later centuries. 

APPENDIX I 

PLATO'S EDUCATIONAL PLANS, AS GIVEN IN HIS 

REPUBLIC AND LAWS 

i. Plato's scheme of education as given in his Republic, Books 
ii-vii. 

Platonic socialism. — The outlines of Plato's ideal state are well 
known and need not be given in detail here. Suffice it to say that it 
is highly socialistic, even to .the extent of obliterating the family, and 
that he organizes it in such a way that classes are distributed according 
to their characteristics, each following plans of thought and action 
that he believes accord with the intrinsic fitness of the case; 5 he 
therefore rests secure in the quiet acquiescence of each class in its 
destiny, and there is no suspicion of rebellion. 

4 See Appendix. 

5 Class lines however are not absolute. Plato, Rep., 413-14. 



PLATO AND ARISTOTLE 79 

General principles of Plato's ideal state. — Those who have the 
highest ideals and show themselves capable of the highest attainments, 
being discovered by a natural process of elimination, are to be the 
rulers. After a kind of probationary period of ruling they attain the 
state of pure contemplation, where thoughts are filled with pure ideals. 
They are typical men thinking in types, the great archetypes. Philos- 
ophers therefore are to rule ; hence the state may be called a philosophic 
state. The next class, really an offshoot of the same class, is that 
designated as the " guardians " of the state, the " auxiliaries and 
allies of the principles of the rulers." Both classes, however, are 
guardians, though one of them in a higher and broader sense than 
the other. 6 Now it is this general class or double class of citizens for 
which alone Plato seems to provide education, and each one is to 
continue the course according to his talent or affinities, some dropping 
out at one point, some at another, each to serve the state according 
to his capacity. The education of other classes comes in a natural way, 
through apprenticeship and otherwise. We are concerned here then 
only with some details as to the education of this highest class, — its 
aims and means. 

Distinctive features of his course of education. — Though Plato 
presupposes a Utopian state based on socialistic principles, he cannot 
break away from the old Greek course of training. But he idealizes it, 
— making it lead from the concrete and objective to the ideal and 
philosophic. Crude forms of things, with which one deals in the 
schools, with him are to lead to typal forms which one sees only in 
the world of thought or ideas, as he calls it. His ideal is the conser- 
vation of the state through philosophic education inducting students 
into real ideas, and his state is to be served in lower capacities, re- 
quiring more or less education, by those who stop by the way in the 
long and arduous course toward the philosophic goal. 

Great principle. Development. — His great principle is dialectic. 7 
Through this he attains his final purpose of living in pure ideas or, 
as we should say, ideals. In a way dialectic, or dialectic life, is his 
ideal. This dialectic, which is his talisman, is a straightforward analyz- 
ing of anything and everything that meets the student, until the real 
principle or idea of things is reached. The four stages on the way 
to this supreme process and power, 8 which represent a kind of psycho- 
logical analysis of method, are, knowledge of shadows, belief, under- 
standing, and science. His education is to lead pupils to this climax 
of knowledge. It is not however to put certain qualities or certain 
knowledge into souls, but to develop latent potentialities ; for, he says, 
" certain professors of education must be mistaken in saying that they 
can put knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like 

6 Do., 376, 473, 487, 535-36; citations 2, 3, 4 (last pages of Appendix), 

7 Citations 1, 4; Rep., 539. 

8 Do., 533-34- 



80 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

giving eyes to the blind, — whereas our argument shows that the power 
is already in the soul." 9 

Aim. — From what has been said it is plain that according to Plato 
the aim of education, briefly stated, is to train for civic purposes a 
select body of children through a curriculum that each is to continue ac- 
cording to his talent, the highest degree of this education, attained by a 
few choice souls, being that which gives philosophic insight and the 
ruling ability that this produces. 

Plato's ideal is thus a civic one. Indeed he makes great effort 
to throw himself into the breach made by the recession of civic ideals 
before personal ends and aims. 

The curriculum. — The means he suggests for producing his ideal 
are not new. They are, in the first place, the typical Greek agencies, 
music and gymnastic. 10 Music as usual includes literature, but very 
limited in amount and carefully defined in quality. 11 Literature is to 
be simple and to be freed from all matter that would degrade the soul 
or jeopardize ideals. Therefore Homer must retire from his position 
of presiding genius of the schools, and much other material must 
follow him. Strong melodies, Dorian and Phrygian harmonies, meet his 
approval, and the lyre, the harp, and the pipe are the instruments of 
his choice. In literature that is exclusively or chiefly poetical, simple 
narrative or lofty "imitation" is the rule. 

In addition to these simple educational forces he finds that arithme- 
tic, geometry, and astronomy are required for his purpose, 12 — geometry 
of a simple sort, for he finds solid geometry in a very undeveloped 
state. Finally in higher education, which is entered only by adults of 
thirty years, dialectic 13 becomes the sum and substance of the curricu- 
lum. 

Gradation. — This is a bare summary of the curriculum. As these 
studies are applied to different ages however, some very interesting 
distinctions, as well as some very suggestive elements of method, come 
to view. i. " Calculation, geometry, and all other elements of instruc- 
tion which are a preparation for dialectic, should be presented to the 
mind in childhood" and in the form of amusement. There is to be 
no compulsion, for " a freeman ought to be a freeman in the ac- 
quisition of knowledge." 14 This "childhood" would seem to extend 
to about the age of sixteen or seventeen, and thus to include much of 
the period of secondary training. 2. Plato provides then for three years 
of close application to study, though he is rather vague here, as else- 
where, in the matter of details. In all this early period the sciences 
are taken up without order. 3. But in late adolescence, when the youth 
has rounded out a score of years, these subjects are "brought to- 
gether," so that the youth are " able to see the correlation of them to 

9 Do., 518. 10 Citations 2, 6-8; Rep., 411. 

"Citations 7, 9; Rep., 386 ff., 411. 

12 Citations 10-12; Rep., 510, 524-25, 526-28. 

13 The fundamental idea in dialectic was to be applied also to adoles- 
cent studies. 14 Rep., 536-7 ; Citations, 16. 



PLATO AND ARISTOTLE 81 

one another and to true being." 15 Herein lies the most important 
change which Plato introduced into the secondary curriculum. Stu- 
dents are to go beyond form, beyond the ordinary processes, and to 
find the great thought beneath, — that which binds them to universal 
thought, to the world of ideas. 16 This was natural inspiration-ground 
for youth. The ideal appeals to the adolescent. In' the two periods 
therefore the sciences are taken up in two different ways, — ways so 
different as to make the subjects themselves seem different. Two dif- 
ferent conceptions thus guide the curriculum. 

But there is also gradation in method. Beginning with play, 17 which 
Plato, following primal educational instincts, emphasizes in his scheme, 
method grows gradually to the dialectic stage. 

Secondary education indefinite in Republic. — Plato's educational 
scheme in his Republic is very general, and can satisfy no one who 
is looking for an organized scheme of education in which details as 
to age and study are carefully explained. He refers to definite age 
in the secondary period but once, and this has already been noted. 
We may, however, make a simple division that he suggests, earlier edu- 
cation, which is to be "a sort of amusement," thus making it easier 
to discover the child's " natural bent," 18 and later education, when 
subjects are taken up more seriously and shown in their relations. 
This is significant when we consider the psychologies of the two 
periods. But as a rule we must look in the Republic only for the 
larger ideas of education and for a minute discussion of the subject of 
music. We must look elsewhere for light as to grading and organiza- 
tion. This is found in the Laws. 

Davidson, in his Aristotle, leads us to think that Plato maps out his 
course carefully as to ages and subjects in the Republic. He has evi- 
dently combined his suggestions in the Republic and the Laws, which 
is hardly fair. He even makes Plato more precise than he is. What- 
ever else the Greek philosopher does, he does not decide finally on any 
hard and fast lines for our secondary period. 

2. PLATO'S SCHEME OF EDUCATION AS GIVEN IN BOOK 
VII OF HIS LAWS, WITH BRIEF REFERENCE 
TO OTHER BOOKS 

Plato's state is here radically different from that of the Republic, as 
will be seen by the following outline : — 

Outline of State in " The Laws.'V- 19 No communal principles except 

" common tables." Private families and property. 
Men and women on a par. Training of the two sexes similar. 

15 Rep., 537. 

16 For other pedagogical principles see Citations 12 ; Rep., 526-7. 
Plato seems to think that special training can give general ability. 

17 Citations 16, 17. 18 Citations 11. 

19 See Plato, Laws, and Jowett's Introduction to his translation of 
Plato's works, Vol. 4, pp. 8, 9, 17, 142 ff. 



82 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

No gold or silver money; simply tokens. Care to promote simplicity 
and an approximation to equality. The money question perhaps 
influenced by this. 

Number of families fixed at 5050, the number evidently being selected 
for its factoring power. 

Land allotted to citizens, each receiving a double lot, one near and one 
remote ; two residences. " Let the several possessors feel that their 
particular lots belong to the whole city." Lots to be equalized in 
value ; each family has at least one lot, and no family more than 
four ; hence bounds of wealth are fixed within narrow limits. Strict 
penalties for overstepping. Gods have twelve lots, one each. 

On basis of this limited difference in wealth four classes are formed. 
" Offices, contributions, and distributions are proportioned to the 
value of each person's wealth, and not solely to the virtue of his 
ancestors or himself, nor yet to the strength and beauty of his 
person, but to the measure of his wealth or poverty; and so by a 
law of inequality, which will be in proportion to his wealth, he 
will receive honors and offices as equally as possible, and there 
will be no quarrels or disputes," 

Electors. — Legislators. — Magistrates, elected by vote or lot. — Courts 
(graded) ; judges appointed by magistrates. — General and local as- 
semblies of people also serve judicially, the former as the highest 
Court of Appeals. Council of 360, to have general supervision of 
state. 

A " Nocturnal Council " composed of old men and young men who 
attain the highest education. The old men form the deliberative 
body. " The younger guardians . . . are chosen for their natural 
gifts and placed in the head of the state, having their souls all 
full of eyes, with which they look around the whole city. They 
keep watch, and hand over their perceptions to the memory, and 
inform the elders of all that happens in the city; and those whom 
we compared to the mind, because they have many wise thoughts, 
that is to say the old men, take counsel, and, making use of the 
younger men as their ministers and advising with them, in this 
way both together preserve the whole state." . . . 

Ministers of Music and Gymnastic, and a Minister of Education are 
chosen. 

The constitution is to be stable. No change. Laws irreversible. 

All freemen to be educated. 

Position of education in the scheme. — In developing this state 
Plato naturally makes education a part of statecraft, as in the Re- 
public, but his scheme of education is different from the one just 
noticed, and it is more clearly outlined. He makes it, even to details, 
the subject of state law. It has reference also to the practical (as 
far as Plato can bring himself to the practical), rather than to the 
transcendental ideal exemplified in the Republic. For this reason one 
ought not to confound the two schemes or amalgamate them. Glean- 
ings from the Laws will give us the outlines of his secondary education, 
as he conceived it at a later date than that of his earlier treatise, and 
will enable us to make some interesting comparisons. 

Aims. — "The sum of education," he says, "is right training in the 



PLATO AND ARISTOTLE 83 

nursery. The soul of the child in his play should be trained to that 
sort of excellence in which, when he grows up to manhood, he will 
have to be perfected." And he defines his idea of education in such 
words as these : " For we are not speaking of education in this sense 
of the word (education for a trade), but of that, other education in 
virtue, from youth upwards, which makes a man eagerly pursue the 
ideal perfection of citizenship and teaches him how rightly to rule 
and how to obey. This is the only training which, upon our view, 
would be characterized as education. That other sort of training which 
aims at the acquisition of wealth or bodily strength or mere cleverness 
apart from intelligence and justice is mean and illiberal and is not 
worthy to be called education at all." Another remark brings out 
the typical Greek dualism, which he now proceeds to apply : — " Am 
I not right in maintaining that a good education is that which tends 
most to the improvement of mind and body ? " 20 

Periods of education. — The first period of education for which he 
prescribes is that embraced in the first three years of life. For this 
period he emphasizes exercise and a careful guarding from fear and 
sorrow. " If during these three years every possible care were taken 
that our nursling should have as little of sorrow and fear, and, in 
general, of pain, as was possible, might we not expect at this age to 
make his soul more gentle and cheerful?" 21 

From three to six is the period for sport. 22 " Children at that 
age have certain natural modes of amusement which they find out for 
themselves when they meet." 23 This is also the time " to get rid of 
self-will in him, punishing him, not so as to disgrace him." At six 
comes the separation of the sexes. 23 " Now they must begin to learn, 
the boys going to teachers of horsemanship and the use of the bow, the 
javelin, and the sling; and, if they do not object, let the women go 
too to learn, if not to practice; above all they ought to know the use 
of arms, for these are matters which are almost entirely misunderstood 
at present." 23 In this connection he advocates ambidexterity. All this 
care is to be devoted to physical exercise during these early years, 
"that all may be sound, hand and foot, and may not spoil the gift 
of nature by bad habits, in so far as this can be avoided." 2a 

The curriculum. — He now reminds us again that education has two 
branches, one of gymnastic, which is concerned with the body, 24 and 
the other of music, which is designed for the improvement of the soul. 
He includes both dancing and wrestling in the former and advises 
" suitable imitations of war in our dances." 

Again, he says : " It will be right also for boys, until such time as they 

2 <> Laws, 643-44, 788. 

21 Do., 789-92. 

22 Citations 13, 14 ; Laws, 793-94. One's future work is to be recog- 
nized in plays ; so these years are formative. 

23 Do., 794-97. 

24 Do., 795 f . ; Citations 15. 



84 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

go to war, to make processions and supplications to the gods, in goodly 
array, armed and on horseback, faster and slower in their dances and 
marches, offering up prayers to the gods, and also engaging in con- 
tests and preludes of contests, if at all, with those objects. For these 
sorts of exercise and no others, are useful both in peace and war 
and are beneficial both to states and to private houses. But other 
labors and sports and excessive training of the body are unworthy of 
freemen." 25 

Music. — As to plays, music, and song, he gives very definite limita- 
tions. He decides for that which is substantial, established, and regu- 
lar, the good old fashions as opposed to constant change, and believes 
such things have close relations with the stability of states. 26 

Physical training. — " Next follow the buildings for gymnasia and 
schools open to all ; these are to be in three places. In the midst of the 
city, and outside the city, and in the surrounding country there shall 
be schools for horse exercise, and open spaces also in three places ar- 
ranged with a view to archery and throwing of missiles, at which 
young men may learn and practice. ... In these schools let there be 
dwellings for teachers, who shall be brought from foreign parts by 
pay, and let them teach the frequenters of the school the art of war and 
the art of music." 27 

Letters. — Coming to the "letters" side of musical training he tells 
us that "a fair time for a boy of ten years old to spend in letters is 
three years." 

Secondary education begins. — " At thirteen years he should begin 
to handle the lyre and he may continue at this another three years, 
neither more nor less, and whether his father or himself like or dis- 
like the study, he is not to be allowed to spend more or less time in 
learning music than the law allows." As to the extent of training in 
reading and writing he does not leave us in doubt. " They ought to 
be occupied with their letters until they are able to read and write; 
but the acquisition of perfect beauty or quickness in writing, if nature 
has not stimulated them to acquire these accomplishments in the given 
number of years, they should be let alone." 

Selection of material. — On the literary side he follows consistently 
his idea of conservatism, inclining to a careful sifting according to 
principles he has laid down. This is in striking contrast with some 
of the customs of the day that he vividly depicts in these words : — 
" We have a great many poets writing in hexameter, trimeter, and 
all sorts of measures, some who are serious, others who aim only at 
raising a laugh, in which the aforesaid myriads declare that the youth 

25 Laws, 795-6. 

26 Citations 14; Laws, 797 ff. 

27 Citations 15 ; Laws, 804-5. Both boys and girls are to be taught, 
and taught alike. 



PLATO AND ARISTOTLE 85 

who are rightly educated should be brought up and saturated; they 
should be constantly hearing them read at recitations, and learning 
them, getting off whole parts by heart, while others select choice 1 
passages and long speeches, and make compendiums of them, saying 
that these shall be committed to memory, and that in this way a man 
is to be made good and wise by varied experience and learning." 28 

Arithmetic and geometry. — Finally the growing citizen must study 
" calculation in arithmetic," 29 the measurement of length, surface and 
depth (geometry), and that which "has to do with the revolution of 
the stars in relation to one another." But it is not necessary to make 
a technical and extended study of these things, for he says, " not 
every one has need to toil through all these things in a strictly scientific 
manner, but only a few, and who they are to be we will hereafter 
indicate." But " all freemen should, I conceive, learn as much of these 
various disciplines as every child in Egypt is taught when he learns 
his alphabet," by way of " pleasure and amusement," — that is, each 
one is to gain a simple and elementary knowledge of these arts. 30 

Compulsory education. — This education is to be compulsory, at 
least part of it, and we may assume that we are to apply to the whole 
course of ordinary education the following words used in speaking of 
the " gymnasia and schools open to all " that were spoken of above : — 

" Let them teach the frequenters of the school the art of war and the 
art of music ; and they shall come not only if their parents please, 
but if they do not please; and if their education is neglected, there 
shall be a compulsory education of all and sundry, as the saying is, 
as far as this is possible, and the pupils shall be regarded as belonging 
to the state rather than their parents." 

Education for both sexes. — Both sexes are included in this plan, 
for he continues, " my law would apply to females as well as males, and 
they shall both go through the same exercises. I have no sort of fear 
of saying that gymnastic and horsemanship are as suitable to women 
as men." And again a little farther on he says, " nor will any one deny 
that women ought to share as far as possible in education and in other 
ways with men." 31 

Education a serious and strenuous matter. — Studentship is to be a 
strenuous matter : — " When the day breaks the time has arrived for 

28 Do., 810-11. 

29 Citations 10, 12; Laws, 747, 817-18. Arithmetic is a supreme in- 
strument of education. 

30 Do., 817 ff. Plato hints at higher studies, but gives no details or 
information about them, unless we are to interpret some of his words 
as referring to a little advanced geometry and astronomy. See 
Laws, 818 ff., 068. The latter reference implies that members of the 
" Nocturnal Council " are to have a special and higher education, 
apparently dialectic. 

31 Do., 795, 804-5. 



86 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

youth to go to the schoolmasters." "There ought to be no by-work 
which interferes with the due exercise and nourishment of the body, 
or the attainments and habits of the soul. Night and day are not 
long enough for the accomplishment of their perfection and consum- 
mation ; and to this end all freemen ought to arrange the time of their 
employment during the whole course of the twenty-four hours, from 
morning to evening and from evening to morning of the next sunrise. 
. . . Much sleep is not required by nature either for our souls or bodies 
or for the actions in which they are concerned; . . . but he of us who 
has the greatest regard for life and reason keeps awake as long as 
he can, reserving only so much time for sleep as is expedient for 
health, and much sleep is not required if the habit of not sleeping be 
formed." 32 

Administration. — It remains to say a word as to the state ma- 
chinery for superintending educational matters. The Nocturnal Coun- 
cil (described in the outline of the state given on page 82), he tells us 
in Book XII, is "associated with us in our whole scheme of educa- 
tion." Again, "it will be proper," he says, "to appoint ministers of 
music and gymnastic, two of each kind, one whose business will be 
education, and the other for the superintendence of contests. In speak- 
ing of education the law means to speak of those who have the care 
of order and instruction in gymnasia and schools and of the going to 
school and lodging of boys and girls ; and in speaking of contests, the 
law refers to the judges of gymnastic and music." Then there is to 
be a " minister of the education of youth, male and female ; he too will 
rule according to law, being a single magistrate of fifty years old at 
least; the father of children lawfully begotten, 33 of both sexes, or of 
one at any rate. He who is elected and he who is the elector should 
consider that of all great offices of state this is the greatest; for the 
first shoot of any plant rightly tending to the perfection of its own 
nature has the greatest effect on its maturity, and this is true also of 
men. Man, we say, is a tame and civilized animal; nevertheless he 
requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature,- and then of all 
animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized; but if he be 
insufficiently or ill-educated, he is the savagest of earthly creatures. 
Wherefore the legislator ought not to allow the education of children 
to become a secondary or accidental matter." 34 

These are good words with which to close the account of the educa- 
tion of the Laws. Plato is in many ways more interesting here than 
in the Republic. He comes nearer this world, nearer the practical, 
and he gives more detail. But there is a certain ideal nature, and 
a certain inspiration in the Republic which also attract us. 

A brief comparative summary must close this section : — 

32 Do., 807-8. 

33 To-day we put a premium upon the childless. Plato showed the 
greater wisdom. 

34 Do. 764-66. 



PLATO AND ARISTOTLE 



87 



REPUBLIC 

Aim : — To train conservators of 
the state. Mind chiefly _ on 
" supersensuous man." Philo- 
sophical insight. 

Curriculum (general) : — 
Gymnastic and music (words, 
harmonies, literature) . 



Secondary : — 
" Letters," music. 
Arithmetic, geometry, astron- 
omy : — 1, elementary work, 
uncorrelated ; 2, at 20, cor- 
related work; ideal element 
prominent 



Higher education, — dialectics. 
(For those of largest capacity.) 

Method (general and special : — 

Teachers of high quality. 

Early education an amusement. 
No compulsion. The child a 
" freeman in acquisition. In 
regular education steady de- 
votion is required. Sleep and 
exercise unpropitious to learn- 
ing. 

Education a development. 
Leads finally to ideas beneath 
forms, and^ produces har- 
mony. Studies not an ag- 
glomeration of facts, but or- 
ganized ideas. 

Special training may give gen- 
eral ability. 

Education for " Guardians " only, 
men only. 



LAWS 

Aim: — To train a good man, 
perfectly ruling and ruled, 
liberally educated, not educated 
for a trade. 

Curriculum (general) : — 
Gymnastic and music: — 

1 to 3, — exercise; special ex- 
citement, fear, sorrow 
avoided. 

3 to 6, — discipline, sport, 
games (carefully regulated, 
old). 

6. Separation of sexes. 
Learning begins. 

Secondary (partly elementary) : — 

Gymnastic. 

Reading, writing, literature. 

Music. 

(Boy of 10 takes 3 yrs. for let- 
ters, then 3 yrs. for lyre.) 

Arithmetic, geometry, astron- 
omy. No age assigned. 

In all this curriculum, elemen- 
tary knowledge, not scholar- 
ship. 

Higher education. — dialectics. 
(For select number.) 

Method : — 

Early education an amusement. 
No compulsion in early years, 
but strict compulsion later. 
Incessant and vigorous work 
carefully supervised. 

Practical ideas of things. 

Education measured by time 
rather than amount. Strict 
limitation of years in educa- 
tion. 

Education for all freemen, both 
men and women. 



88 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

State organization : — State organization : — 

" Guardians " and Dialecticians. Nocturnal Council. 
Philosophers rulers. Legislators. 

Minister of education. 
Minister of music. 
Minister of gymnastic. 
Education thus to be thoroughly 
organized, not left to acci- 
dent or private management 
at all. 

CITATIONS 

1. Nature of education. — "And surely you would not have the 
children of your ideal state, whom you are nurturing and educating, if 
the ideal ever becomes a reality, you would not allow the future 
rulers to be like posts, having no reason in them, and yet to be set 
in authority over the highest matters? Certainly not. Then you will 
enact that they shall have such an education as will enable them to 
attain the highest skill in asking and answering questions? Yes, he 
said, I will, with your help. Dialectic then, as you will agree, is the 
coping-stone of the sciences and is placed over them; no other can 
be placed higher; the nature of knowledge can go no further. I 
agree, he said." — Rep., 534. 

2. Qualities of leaders. — " Then he who is to be a really good and 
noble guardian of the state will require to unite in himself philosophy 
and spirit and swiftness and strength? Undoubtedly. Then we have 
found the desired natures ; and now that we have found them, how 
are they to be reared and educated? . . . Can we find a better than 
the old-fashioned sort? And this has two divisions, gymnastic for 
the body, and music for the soul." — Plato, Rep., 376. 35 

3. General qualities needed in those who are to be most highly 
educated. — Qualities necessary for those who receive the highest edu- 
cation : — " Preference given to the surest and the bravest, and, if 
possible, to the fairest; and, having noble and manly tempers, they 
should also have the natural gifts which accord with their education " 
(keenness and ready powers of acquisition, a good memory, power of 
enduring fatigue, solidity, love of labor in any line, whole-hearted in- 
dustry, love of truth, temperance, courage, magnanimity, soundness of 
limb and mind). Rep., 535-6. See also 487. 

4. " Until then philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of 
this world have the spirit and power of philosophy and political power 
and greatness meet in one, and those commoner natures who follow 
either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities 
will never cease from ill — nor the human race, as I believe — and then 
only will this our state have a possibility of life and behold the light 
of day." — Rep., 473. 



35 References are to Jowett's translation, 



PLATO AND ARISTOTLE 89 

5. Method and tests. — Observation of future guardians from 
youth upwards ; deeds to be performed ; toils, pains, and conflicts to be 
prescribed; pupils to be tried by enchantments; to be tested more 
thoroughly than gold is tested in the fire, " to discover whether they are 
armed against all enchantments and of a noble bearing always, good 
guardians of themselves and of the music which they have learned, and 
whether they retain under all circumstances a rhythmical and har- 
monious nature such as will be most serviceable to the man himself and 
to the state. And he who at every age, as boy and youth and in 
mature life, has come out of the trial victorious and pure shall be 
appointed a ruler and guardian of the state; he shall be honored in 
life and death." — Rep., 413-14. 

6. Both sexes to be educated. — " Then women must be taught music 
and gymnastic and the art of war, which they must practice like men? 
I suppose that is the inference." — Rep., 452. 

7. Content of curriculum. — " But is our superintendence to go no 
further, and are the poets only to be required by us to impress a good 
moral on their poems as a condition of writing poetry in our state? 
Or is the same control to be exercised over other artists, and are they 
also to be prohibited from exhibiting the opposite forms of vice and 
intemperance and meanness and indecency in sculpture and building 
and other decorative arts ; and is he who does not conform to this rule 
of ours to be prohibited from practicing his art in our state, lest the 
taste of our citizen be corrupted by him? . . . Let our artists rather be 
those who are gifted to discern the true nature of beauty and grace; 
then will our youth dwell in a land of health, amid fair sights and 
sounds, and beauty, the influence of fair works, will meet the sense like 
a breeze and insensibly draw the soul even in childhood into harmony 
with the beauty of reason." 

Results to be aimed at. — "Is not this, I said, the reason, Glaucon, 
why musical training is so powerful, because rhythm and harmony find 
their way into the secret places of the soul, on which they mightily 
fasten, bearing grace in their movements, and making the soul graceful 
of him who is rightly educated, or ungraceful if ill-educated ; and also 
because he who has received this true education of the inner being 
will most shrewdly perceive omissions or faults in art and nature, and 
with a true taste, while he praises and rejoices over and receives 
into his soul the good, and becomes noble and good, he will justly 
blame and hate the bad now in the days of his youth, even before 
he is able to know the reason of the thing; and when reason comes 
he will recognize and salute her as a friend with whom his education 
has made him long familiar." 

" I have no hesitation in saying that neither we nor our guardians 
whom we have to educate can ever become musical until we know the 
essential forms, temperance, courage, liberality, magnificence, as well as 
the cognate and contrary forms in all their combinations, and can 
recognize them and their images wherever they are found, not slighting 



9 o THE HIGH SCHOOL 

them either in small things or great, but believing them all to be 
within the sphere of one art and study." — Rep., 401, 402. 

8. Relation o£ body and mind. — " Now my belief is . . . not that 
the good body improves the soul, but that the good soul improves the 
body. . . . Then if we have educated the mind, the minuter care of the 
body may properly be committed to the mind, and we need only indicate 
general principles for brevity's sake." (He goes on to speak of the 
necessity of abstinence from intoxication, and other matters. He dis- 
parages athletic training, and says his guardians must have a finer 
sort of training.) — Rep., 403~4- See also 410, 411. 

9. Habits to be avoided. Athletic training disparaged. — Danger 
of innovations in music and gymnastic. " This is what Damon tells me, 
and I can quite believe him ; he says that when modes of music change, 
the fundamental laws of the state always change with them." — Rep., 
424. 

10. Arithmetic " above all." — " No single instrument of youthful 
education has such mighty power, both as regards domestic economy 
and politics and in the arts, as the study of arithmetic. Above all 
arithmetic stirs up him who is by nature sleepy and dull, and makes 
him quick to learn, retentive, shrewd, and, aided by art divine, he makes 
progress quite beyond his natural powers. All these, if only the legis- 
lator by laws and institutions can banish meanness and covetousness 
from the souls of the disciples and enable them to profit by them, will 
be excellent and suitable instruments of education. But if he cannot 
do this, he will intentionally create in them, instead of wisdom, the 
habit of craft."— Laws, 747. 

11. Geometry. — "And next shall we inquire whether the kindred 
science also concerns us? You mean geometry? Yes. Certainly, he 
said; that part of geometry which relates to war is clearly our con- 
cern. Yes, I said, but for that purpose a very little of either geometry 
or calculation will be enough ; the question is rather of the higher and 
greater part of geometry, whether that tends towards the great end, I 
mean towards the vision of the idea of the good. . . . True, he said. 
Then if geometry compels us to view essence, it concerns us; if gen- 
eration only, it does not concern us." — Rep., 526. 

Ultimate ends and aim. — " And do you not know also that, although 
they use and reason about the visible forms, they are thinking not of 
these, but of the ideals which they resemble; not of the figures which 
they draw, but of the absolute square and the absolute diameter, and 
so on; . . . they are really seeking for the things themselves, which 
can only be seen with the eyes of the mind? That is true." — Rep., 510. 

12. Value of special training for general ability. — "Those who 
have a natural talent for calculation are generally quick in every other 
kind of knowledge ; and even the dull, if they have had an arithmetical 
training, gain in quickness, if not in any other way." " And in all de- 
partments of study, as experience proves, any one who has studied ge- 
ometry is infinitely quicker of apprehension." — Rep., 526-7. 



PLATO AND ARISTOTLE 91 

13. Play in. education. — " According to my view he who would be 
good at anything must practice that thing from his youth upwards, 
both in sport and earnest, in the particular way which the work re- 
quires; for example, he who is to be a good builder should play at 
building children's houses; and he who is to be a good husbandman, 
at tilling the ground ; those who have the care of their education should 
provide them when young with mimic tools. And they should learn 
beforehand the knowledge which they will afterwards require for their 
art. For example, the future carpenter should learn to measure or 
apply the line in play; and the future warrior should learn riding or 
some other exercise for amusement, and the teacher should endeavor 
to direct the children's inclinations and pleasures by the help of 
amusements to their final aim in life." — Laws, 643. 

(Have we here the germs of "gifts and occupations"?) 

14. Stability in play related to stability of institutions. — "I say 
that in states generally no one has observed that the plays of child- 
hood have a great deal to do with the permanence or want of per- 
manence in legislation. For when plays are ordered with a view to 
children having the same plays and amusing themselves after the same 
manner, and finding delight in the same playthings, the more solemn 
institutions of the state are allowed to remain undisturbed ; whereas, if 
sports are disturbed and innovations are made in them and they con- 
stantly change and the young never speak of their having the same 
likings or the same established notions of good and bad taste, either 
in the bearing of their bodies or in their dress, but he who devises 
something new and out-of-the-way in figures and colors and the like 
is held in special honor, we may truly say that this is the greatest 
injury which can happen in a state; for he who changes the sports 
is secretly changing the manners of the young and making the old to 
be dishonored among them and the new to be honored." — Laws, 797. 

15. State teachers. — " Of all these things (dancing, gymnastic 
movements, military exercises) there ought to be public teachers re- 
ceiving pay from the state, and their pupils should be the men and 
boys of the state and also the girls and women, who are to know all 
these things." — Laws, 813. 

16. Freedom, not compulsion. — "And therefore calculation and 
geometry and all other elements of instruction, which are a prepara- 
tion for dialectic, should be presented to the mind in childhood, not 
however under any notion of forcing them. ... A freeman ought to be 
a freeman in the acquisition of knowledge. Bodily exercise when com- 
pulsory does no harm; but knowledge which is acquired under com- 
pulsion has no hold on the mind. ... Do not use compulsion, but let 
early education be a sort of amusement; that will better enable you to 
find out the natural bent." — Rep., 536-7. 

17. "And the education must begin with plays. The spirit of law 
must be imparted to them in music." — Rep., 425. 



92 THE HIGH SCHOOL 



APPENDIX II 
SECONDARY EDUCATION IN ARISTOTLE'S POLITICS 

Aristotle's state. — Aristotle's state is the basis of his educational 
scheme. His "politics" and his psychology make a broad foundation 
for his pedagogy. The state, as he represents it, is the result of a wide 
induction on his part, — in fact the result of a double induction. From 
this point of view it may be called a generalized state. From his 
careful analysis of the individual, who is to give life and reality to 
his state, it may, like Plato's state, be called a psychologic state. The 
following outline will indicate some of its main features : — 

Aristotle's Psychologic state. — Politics, chiefly Book VII 
Outline.— 

Moderate population; all citizens should know each other. 

Territory large enough to be " all-producing," and enable the inhabi- 
tants to live temperately and liberally in the enjoyment of leisure. 

State to be well-located for defense and other purposes. Various 
topographical details discussed. 

State to be " self-sufficing " in regard to groups or classes of inhabit- 
ants. Hence a variety of groups, though under this general limita- 
tion : — " Conditions of a composite whole are not necessarily 
organic parts of it." 

Two general groups : — 

A. Governing group: — Citizens. — I. Elders- councilors (also 

priests), with legislative and deliberative power. 2. 
Younger men,- warriors, with executive power. Public 
tables provided for this group, by classes. Land allotted 
by half socialistic scheme; two portions for each citizen, 
one for public use (religion and public tables), one for 
private use. Latter divided into two lots, one near city, 
one on frontier. Land preferably tilled by slaves, some 
public, some private. Liberty to be held out as a reward 
for service. Citizens not to engage in any form of pro- 
ductive industry, — not to do anything "illiberal." 

Public education provided for Group A under charge 
of Directors of Education. 

B. Governed group : — Artisans, husbandmen, etc. ; non-citizens, 

no land, not educated by state; receive merely education 
of a trade. 

Various offices ministering to different needs of the body politic. 
Women not educated equally with men. Probably to have domestic 
education only. 
Criticism of his state. — Aristotle thus aims at the ideal, like Plato. 
He does not however reach the transcendental. Notwithstanding his 



PLATO AND ARISTOTLE 93 

power of generalization he recommends a state organization which 
violates both nature and science. His limitations and his arrangement 
of classes prevent him from realizing the highest ideal. As Davidson 
says, his ideal is a static one. 

Aristotle thus has in view in his educational plans only a fraction of 
the population, the class of citizens or " rulers." 36 He arbitrarily 
excludes all who engage in professional, mechanical, or agricultural 
pursuits. This is fatal to his state. It does not, however, vitiate his 
educational laws and principles as far as they go, though it limits their 
application and leaves noticeable gaps in educational theory and practice. 
Another limitation appears in the fact that he makes no provision for 
women's education outside the family. 

This brings us to an analysis of Aristotle's educational scheme, which 
will give various interesting details and show the distinguishing char- 
acteristics of his pedagogy. 

Aim. — Aristotle's aim is to develop his exclusive individual on all 
sides for what he calls "leisure," or better for a cultured life as op- 
posed to a life of business. He says, " I must repeat once again, the 
first principle of all action is leisure (diagoge)." 37 The end is a very 
inclusive one as seen in his remark, " education should not be ex- 
clusively directed to this (the physical), or any other single end." 38 
He finds the fundamental principle in man and provides for developing 
it. On the psychological side this is the expression of self-activity, 
the " self-determination " of the individual. The outcome is to be 
civic virtue. 

Education to be public, — the same for all. — As to uniformity in 
the application of educational principles and the working out of edu- 
cational ends, " since the whole city has one end, it is manifest that 
education should be one and the same for all, and that it should be 
public and not private, — not as at present when every one looks after 
his own children separately and gives them separate instruction of the 
sort which he thinks best; the training in things which are of common 
interest should be the same for all. Neither must we suppose that 
any one of the citizens belongs to himself, for they all belong to the 

36 See outline of state given above. 

37 Pol., VII, 14:12-18; 22; I5:i-6; VIII, 3'.2,6. 

This quotation is interesting : — " Since the end of individuals and 
of the state is the same, the end of the best man and the best state 
must also be the same. It is therefore evident that there ought to 
exist in both of them the virtues of leisure ; for peace, as has often 
been repeated, is the end of war, and leisure of toil. But leisure and 
cultivation may be promoted not only by those virtues which are prac- 
ticed in leisure, but also by some of those which are useful in business. 
For many necessaries of life have to be supplied before we can have 
leisure. Therefore a city must be temperate and brave and able to 
endure." 

38 Pol., VIII, 4:2. 



94 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

state and are each of them a part of the state, and the care of each 
part is inseparable from the care of the whole." 89 
Aristotle analyzes his individual as follows : — 

Educational psychology. — " There are three things which make men 
good and virtuous ; these are nature, habit, and reason. . . . Nature, 
habit and reason must be in harmony with one another." And again, 
" Now the soul of man is divided into two parts, one of which has 
reason in itself and the other, not having reason in itself, is able to 
obey reason. And we call a man good because he has the virtues of 
these two parts. In which of them the end is likely to be found is 
no matter of doubt to those who adopt our division, for in the world 
both of nature and of art the inferior always exists for the sake of 
the better or superior, and the better or superior is that which has rea- 
son. 40 The reason too in our ordinary way of speaking is divided into 
two parts, for there is a practical and a speculative reason, and there 
must be a corresponding division of actions ; the actions of the nat- 
urally better principle are to be preferred by those who have it in their 
power to attain to both or to all, for that is always to every one the 
most eligible which is the highest attainable by him." 41 

With these general remarks as to ends and organization, we come 
to some specifications as to means and order of training. If we expect 
a complete and detailed account of a system of education calculated to 
carry out the author's principles, we shall be disappointed. Aristotle 
is very incomplete and fragmentary here. Such a symmetrical scheme 
as Davidson guesses at, and presents as rather more than a guess, 
may or may not have been in his mind. He appears not to have worked 
his plans out to that extent. But he presents enough to be suggestive 
and to give a general idea of his pedagogical thought. 

Order of development. — And first as to the order of development. 
Aristotle is very emphatic here. He says distinctly, 42 " the care of the 
body ought to precede that of the soul and the training of the appetitive 
part should follow ; none the less our care of it should be for the sake 
of the reason, and our care of the body for the sake of the soul." 
And he impresses it again in these words, " Now it is clear that in 
education habit must go before reason, and the body before the mind." 43 

Periods of education. — From another point of view, order of de- 
velopment may be described by means of the periods into which he 
divides the life of the child. He makes six clearly marked divisions, 
i°, the pre-natal period; 2°, infancy; 3°, to five years; 4 , five to 
seven; 5 , seven to puberty; 6°, puberty to twenty-one. 44 We should 
be fortunate indeed if he were as explicit in describing the training 
suitable for these different periods as he is in marking out the periods 

39 Do., VIII, 1 : 1-4. 

40 Do., VII, 14:0-10. See also 13:10-12. 

41 Do., VII, 14:10-11. 

42 Do., VII, 15:10. 

« Do., VIII, 3 : 13. See VII, 13 : 13 and VII, 15 : 1-10. 
44 Do., VII, 17. 



PLATO AND ARISTOTLE 95 

themselves, but we find little said except for the early periods, and 
our study calls for something on the secondary period particularly; even 
here however something useful is gained, if we use our opportunity. 

First three periods. — For the first period he prescribes special con- 
ditions for procreation calculated to secure worthy offspring. For the 
second and third he merely makes suggestions as to the diet and physical 
conditions best calculated to produce a proper citizen. As to this 
second period he says, " No demand should be made upon the child 
for study or labor, lest its growth be impeded ; and there should be 
sufficient motion to prevent the limbs from being inactive. This can 
be secured in part by amusement, but the amusement should not be 
vulgar or tiring or riotous. The directors of education, as they are 
termed, should be careful what tales or stories the children hear; for 
the sports of children are designed to prepare the way for the business 
of later life, and should be for the most part imitations of the occupa- 
tions which they will hereafter pursue in earnest." 45 

Crying. — In these words and in others in the same chapter he shows 
commendable solicitude for the environment of the child, 46 that it 
shall be made clean and wholesome. Again, he has a word for the 
crying of the period, believing that " those are wrong who in the Laws 
attempt to check the loud crying and screaming of children, for these 
contribute toward their growth and in a manner exercise their bodies. 
Straining the voice has an effect similar to that produced by the re- 
tention of the breath in violent exertions." 47 

Fourth and fifth periods. Formal education through " liberal " 
studies only. — In the fourth period "they must look on at the pur- 
suits which they are hereafter to learn." The fifth period presumably 
is intended to be devoted to the more formal side of education. And 
here it should be noted that Aristotle lays great stress upon liberal 
as opposed to illiberal studies. " There can be no doubt," he says, 
" that children should be taught those useful things which are really 
necessary, but not all things; for occupations are divided into liberal 
and illiberal and to young children should be imparted only such kinds 
of knowledge as will be useful to them without vulgarizing them. 
And any occupation or art or science which makes the body or the 
soul or the mind of the freeman less fit for the practice or exercise of 
virtue is vulgar; wherefore we call those arts vulgar which tend to 
deform the body, and likewise all paid employments, for they absorb 
and degrade the mind." 

Not too detailed and technical training. — "There are also 
some liberal arts quite proper for a freeman to acquire, but only in a 
certain degree, and if he attend to them too closely, in order to at- 
tain perfection in them, the same evil effects will follow. The ob- 
ject also which a man sets before him makes a great difference; if he 

«Do, VII, 17:4-5. 

46 Do., VII, 17 : 7-9- 

47 Do., VII, 17:6. 



96 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

does or learns anything for his own sake or for the sake of his friends 
or with a view to excellence, the action will not appear illiberal; but 
if done for the sake of others the very same action will be thought 
menial and servile." 48 

That is, anything which smacks of profession or trade is illiberal. 
Aristotle had the genuine Greek thought as to such things. Free- 
booting was gentlemanly beside them. 

The curriculum. Four branches. — Regarding the actual studies, he 
says, 49 

"The received subjects of instruction are partly of a liberal and 
partly of an illiberal character. The customary branches of education 
are in number four; they are (i) reading and writing, (2) gymnastic 
exercises (3), music, to which is sometimes added (4) drawing. Of 
these, reading, writing, and drawing are regarded as useful for the pur- 
poses of life in a variety of ways, and gymnastic exercises are thought 
to infuse courage. Concerning music a doubt may be raised ; in our 
own day most men cultivate it for the sake of pleasure, but originally it 
was included in education, because nature herself, as has been often 
said, requires that we should be able not only to work well, but to use 
leisure well." 

Physical education not to include athletics. — Most of the remain- 
ing portion, 50 of the book is devoted to two of these subjects, gym- 
nastics and music. Both are to be of the liberalizing type. Educa- 
tional gymnastics, for example, do not include athletics. 51 " Of those 
states which in our own day seem to take the greatest care of children 
some aim at producing in them an athletic habit, but they only injure 
their forms and stunt their growth." 52 And again, " It is an admitted 
principle that gymnastic exercises should be employed in education and 
that for children they should be of a lighter kind, avoiding severe 
regimen or painful toil lest the growth of the body be impaired. The 
evil of excessive training in early years is strikingly proved by the 
example of the Olympic victors; for not more than two or three of 
them have gained a prize as boys and as men; their early training and 
severe gymnastic exercises exhausted their constitutions." 53 

The kind of " music " prescribed. — Music is with Aristotle, as 
with the Greeks of all ages, a prime educational force. 54 It may 
be reckoned under education, amusement, and intellectual enjoyment, 
he says. " In addition to the common pleasure, felt and shared by 
all (for the pleasure given by music is natural and therefore adapted 
to all ages and natures), may it not have also some influence over 

48 Do., VIII, 2:3-6; Conf. Cicero, De Of., 1:42. 

49 Do., VIII, 2:6-3; 12, 5:4. 

50 Do., VIII, 3 ff. 
5 iDo., VIII, 4:1-3; 5-7. 
5 2Do., VIII, 4:1. 

53 Do., VIII, 4:7, 8. 

54 Do., VIII, 3 : 8, 9. See also VIII, 5. 



PLATO AND ARISTOTLE 97 

the character and the soul? It must have such an influence, if char- 
acters are affected by it. And that they are so affected is proved 
by the. power which the songs of Olympus and many others exercise, 
for beyond question they inspire enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is an 
emotion of the ethical part of the soul." 55 
As to the kind of music, he lays down the following principles : — 

"Thus then we reject the professional instruments and also the pro- 
fessional mode of education in music, — and by professional we mean 
that which is adopted in contests, for in this the performer practices 
the art not for the sake of his own improvement but in order to give 
pleasure, and that of a vulgar sort, to his hearers. For this reason 
the execution of such music is not the part of a freeman, but of a paid 
performer, and the result is that the performers are vulgarized, for 
the end at which they aim is bad. The vulgarity of the spectator tends 
to lower the character of the music and therefore of the performers; 
they look to him, — he makes them what they are and fashions even 
their bodies by the movements which he expects them to exhibit." 56 

" But for the purposes of education, as I have already said, those 
modes and melodies should be employed which are ethical, such as 
the Dorian, though we may include any others which are approved by 
philosophers who have had a musical education." 57 

Sixth period — For the last period of education he makes only these 
general suggestions : — 

" When boyhood is over three years should be spent in other studies ; 
the period of life which follows may then be devoted to hard exercise 
and strict regimen. Men ought not to labor at the same time with their 
minds and with their bodies; for the two kinds of labor are opposed 
to one another ; the labor of the body impedes the mind, and the labor 
of the mind the body." 58 

It is to be greatly regretted that he has not given more on this period. 
We may assume that he refers here to the adolescent life from 12 to 
21, but this is merely a plausible conjecture. Again we may reasonably 
assume that the studies are the typical ones that Greece assigned to 
this period, — science, perhaps advanced work in literature (though 
both Plato and Aristotle are very strict in defining the limits of litera- 
ture), and dialectics. But how much science, whether the double 
course of the Republic or the more elementary course of the Laws, 
we are not told. We may believe, however, as the end of education 
lay in the contemplation of pure reason, in " theoria," and in culture 
rather than practical life, that he inclined more to the idea of the Re- 
public than to that of the Laws. 

End in view. — It is certainly interesting to find him making a special 
feature of adolescence and prescribing for it a special regimen. His dis- 
ss Do, VIII, 5 : 14-16. See also VIII, 6 : 8. 
56 Do, VIII, 6:15-16. 
"Do, VIII, 7:8. 
68 Do, VIII, 4:9. 



98 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

tribution of intellectual work and physical training is also significant. 69 
But while his view seems sound, considering his premises, we should 
substitute for his plan here a pedagogical combination of the mental 
and physical. 

The individual and the state. — In Aristotle's state the individual is 
still the center. His scheme thus bears the stamp of the period. But 
his educational plan, which is more systematic, more purposeful, and 
far better organized than those of his day, would relieve the danger 
of individualism. He provides for developing physical and psychical 
powers so as to make a balanced individual, a man of poise, able to 
live by reason. Hence the state would never be distraught by the 
unleashing of undisciplined forces in his educated circle. In this way 
his scheme was a corrective. It would have been a larger one, if he had 
enlarged the scope of its application. Outside the narrow world for 
which he planned this education dangers still stalked in all their native 
power. 

To sum up in the form of a scheme the educational details of the 
Politics we have the following outline : — 

Education of a moiety of the male population. No provision for 
women. 

State Education. 

Aims : — Development of the whole man for culture and for civic life. 

Body training before mental training, 
ist period- prenatal period- best conditions for procreation. 
2nd period - infancy - careful diet; exercise; allow to cry. 
3rd period,- to 5 -suitable exercise; no demand for study or labor; 

special care to have wholesome environment. Sports preparatory 

for life. 
4th period,- 5 to 7,- they are to look on pursuits they are hereafter 

to learn. 
5th period- 7 to puberty- study : - reading, writing, music, drawing, 

gymnastics (not severe). Athletics discountenanced. Studies 

" liberal," as opposed to " illiberal." 
6th period,- puberty to 21,-1. "other studies," perhaps the basis of 

the later trivium and quadrivium; 2. severer physical training. 

59 Do., VIII, 4:9; 5:4. 



VII 

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN ROME — EARLY PERIOD 

Differences in race between Romans and Greeks. — A psy- 
chological analysis of the Greeks and Romans reveals striking 
differences between them. Characteristics differ not merely 
in proportion, but in kind. The once reputed oneness of race 
breaks down even at a cursory glance. Some of the contrasts 
between the two peoples are brought out by the following com- 
parison in which various characteristics are summarized. 

Contrasts in Greek and Roman Characters. 1 

Greeks 2 Romans 
i. Sophrosyne (temperantia). i. Virtus (fortitude, etc.). 

Arete (virtus), "courage, Prudentia. Justitia. Tem- 

love of country" (spontan- perantia. Constantia. Hon- 

eous but not deep). Eu- estas. Gravitas. Prosaic 

kosima (grace, esthetic ex- and practical ideas, 

pression in all lines). Energy, governing power, in- 

Proportion, harmonious de- tense personality, conscious 

velopment of physical and worth ; stronger elements of 

mental elements. character prominent. 
2. " Innate love of freedom and 2. Bound up intensely in social 

independence" (free per- unit and its expansion, the 

sonality). Self assertion. state. Free and intense 

Development for individual, public life. " Respect for 

primary, for state, secon- authority and established in- 

dary. stitutions." 

1 Compiled from different studies of the Greeks and Romans. Forti- 
fied from original sources and classical history. It is unnecessary, 
even impracticable, to give detailed references. Those familiar with 
the studies and authors will easily trace. 

These are general characteristics that became conspicuous as the two 
peoples developed. 

It will be interesting here to refer to Chapter I which gives some hints 
as to the origin of the differences between the two peoples. 

2 See chapter IV, page 50. Repeated here to facilitate contrast. 

99 



100 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



Individuality through the 
state and in the state. Au- 
thority of state from the in- 
dividual. 

3. Versatility. Many-sided ac- 

tivity. 

4. Power to generalize, idealize, 

universalize, and power to 
make ideals concrete and 
objective. " Kept going out 
from simple life and ideas 
of truth and proportion to a 
larger life, and thus height- 
ened capacity and power." 

Intense intellectuality and 
fearlessness in taking up 
and prosecuting to the end 
any subject or investigation 
regardless of issues. " Love 
of knowledge for its own 
sake, unfettered by form, 
religion, or caste." 

" Creative imagination gave 
form to narrow realities of 
life." 

5. Religion not abstract. Gods 

idealized human personali- 
ties (friendly). "Nature 
and life full of deity." 

A joyful religion of freedom 
and spontaneity. 

" Religious concepts, both the 
highest and simplest, open 
to all," not limited as in 
Orient. 

Greeks saw bright and cheer- 
ful side. Moulded all in es- 
thetic lines. 

6. " Virtuous life a beautiful and 

happy one," in harmony 
with self and external rela- 
tions." 
No " deep religious sense or 
reverence. No high con- 
ception of abstract duty." 
No strong and steady devo- 
tion to principle. No genius 



State existed in and through 
the individual. 



3. Stability, persistence. Rath- 

er narrow interests. 

4. A strong tendency to the ab- 

stract and formal (devoted 
to set forms). "Disin- 
clination to speculation and 
esthetics," but power to de- 
velop a certain strength in 
these directions. 

Pure intellectuality did not 
appeal strongly. 

Lack of imagination. Ro- 
mans occupied with things 
as they were and their re- 
lations. 



5. Religion abstract, formal, un- 
imaginative, awe-ful, seri- 
ious. Gods not " idealized 
personalities." 
Romans saw a deep spiritual 
side to everything. 



6. Strong moral nature. " Love 
for directness and truth." 
Felt obligation to law, duty, 
justice. Genius for order 
and system. 
But Romans were utilitarian, 
practical, cold, calculating, 
unsympathetic, formal. 



ROME — EARLY PERIOD 



IOI 



for order and system. Gen- 
ius took other directions. 

Greeks " subtle and genial." 
Not conspicuous for solid- 
ity. Not highly developed 
in truthfulness. 

Showed broad and varied hu- 
man sympathy. 

7. No strong family life. 7. "Real family life," strong, 

Woman subordinate and in- compact. Elements mu- 

ferior. tually helpful and regardful. 

Woman an important and 
influential factor, a com- 
manding figure, coordinate, 
not subordinate. 

8. " Education instinctive pro- 8. Education natural. Devoted 

duct of life and people ; to practical ends, 

spontaneous." Also out- Careful attention to secure 

growth of theory and dis- results for self, friends, 

cussion. state. 

At its foundation, a realiza- Order and system prominent, 

tion of capacity. 

Central idea to produce a bal- 
ance in the factors of life. 

" Unity. Comprehensiveness. 

Proportion. Aimfulness." 

Little system or organization. 

Most prominent characteristics of Romans. — The most 
striking characteristic of the Romans evidently was their genius 
for organization, their predilection for system and for work- 
ing out formal details. It is not necessary to prove it, for it 
has been recognized by the world through all the centuries 
since Rome was an active power. To attempt to explain it 
at length would be interesting, but it would be beyond our main 
purpose here. We accept it as a fact and must expect it to 
give character to Roman education. We may say that sterility 
of soil, a location not specially conducive to commerce, but 
strategic for military purposes, and the happy union of tribes 
and warring elements in her early history made Rome a mili- 
tary nation and directed her naturally to empire building not 
only for her own safety, but as an outlet for her strong quali- 
ties. 3 Empire building requires and develops practical organ- 

3 See Ihne's Rome, 1-2. 



102 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

izing power. But this is only a surface explanation. The 
quality was in the basal race before it reached Rome; it was 
not merely a result of circumstances after that event. 4 With 
such contrast in character between the Greeks and the Romans 
we should expect to find striking contrasts in their schemes of 
education. Such contrasts there were. Especially should we 
expect to find Roman education well organized. 

Two epochs in education.— Roman education is naturally 
divided into two epochs, i, that in which old Roman ideas 
ruled exclusively, or practically so; 2, that in which foreign 
influence profoundly modified Roman thought and aims. The 
first extended, roughly, to the Punic Wars, or to about 250 
B. C. The second reached onward from this time to the early 
Christian centuries. The dividing point was the period when 
Rome began that intimate contact with Magna Graecia and 
mother Greece that meant eventually the fall of Greece and a 
fusion of Greek and Roman ideals into a culture that was to 
be the dominant influence in the West. Though in fixing this 
dividing line the characteristics of the two epochs overlap 
somewhat, it is the most logical bound. The two periods are 
so distinct that they are easily discriminated. 

For the sake of comparison and to get a more appreciative 
idea of secondary education we find ourselves here, as in Greek 
education, urged to give brief attention to elementary educa- 
tion before touching the secondary period. 

Elementary education. — The educational aim in the early 
period of Roman education just referred to was to develop a 
hardy, practical youth, capable of maintaining family tradi- 
tions and the state. The state was undoubtedly supreme, but 
we can perhaps discern a greater tendency to individual initia- 
tive than in Athens. At least there was family initiative. 
Perhaps if we could compare the two cities at exactly the same 
dates their predominant units would be found the same. 

Practical nature of studies and educational material. — 

4 The characteristics in question were found in Dravidians and a 
Dravidian amalgamation, known as the Kushika race, that spread west- 
ward and left its influence in Italy. There is a Semitic element in 
Roman thought. Rome was distinct from Athens in the elements of 
her population. She was more comparable to Sparta in this respect. 
See Hewitt, Ruling Races, I: XIV-XVI, LXI, 296 ft. 



ROME — EARLY PERIOD 103 

From what has been said we should expect that the training 
employed to carry out this Roman ideal would be very prac- 
tical. From the nature of the case, reading, writing and num- 
ber, from the point of view of utility, would be jelatively more 
prominent in Rome than in Athens. In reading the Romans 
at first used material very different from that found in early 
Athenian education, but material entirely in keeping with the 
Roman type of mind. It consisted of the XII Tables that 
must be learned by heart. 5 It was not long however before a 
Latin Homer came in to claim a share of the children's atten- 
tion, and eventually indigenous Latin literature furnished read- 
ing matter. 6 In these standard subjects the standard meth- 
ods described in Chapter V were used. 7 We should expect 
this, even the primeval rote learning, which we found still 
lingering there. Such methods easily adapt themselves to 
unpedagogical times. 

Moral training. — But the Romans made more of moral 
training than of that which has just been noted. This would 
be expected of a practical people. Their method here was the 
best that has ever been devised for perpetuating national 
ideals, — training through imitation and careful guidance and 
surveillance. 8 Their models were those of their environment 
and those cherished in their folk-lore and were well calculated 
to appeal to young minds. If an over-dose of precept is found, 
we certainly find with it elements of method well adapted to 
young and growing citizens. As in later times, moral senti- 
ments probably met the boy also in his writing copies. 9 

Discipline and incentives. — Discipline must always be 
considered a part of method, even of that which applies to 
ordinary studies like reading and writing. All testimony goes 

5 Horace, Ars Poet, 322 ft.; Monroe, op. cit., 399 (see also 333~4) I 
Pliny, Epist, VIII, 14. 

" Discebamus enim pueri duodecim, ut carmen necessarium, quas jam 
nemo discit," Cicero, Leg., II, 23 (Becker's Gallus). 

6 " Meam (orationem) in ilium pueri omnes tamquam dictata perdis- 
cant," Cicero, Q. R, III, 1:4; Monroe, op. cit., 398. 

7 Becker's Gallus, 189; Pliny, Epist, VIII, 14; Conf. Tacitus, Or.; 
Monroe, op. cit., 362, 398. 

8 Juvenal, Sat, XIV; Monroe, op. cit., 319 f. (see also 401). 

9 Horace, Sat., I, 4; Pliny Epist, III, 3; Juvenal, Sat, XIV; Tacitus, 
Or.; Monroe, op. cit., 362-3, 396, 411, 420. 



104 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

to show that discipline was harsh in Rome. 1 * Learning was 
not an easy nor a honeyed task. Plautus (Bac. Ill, 13) says, 
" And then when you were reading your book, if you made a 
mistake in a single syllable, your skin would be made as spotted 
as your nurse's gown." On the other hand, it is quite prob- 
able that emulation and the stimulus of prizes had their appli- 
cation in this early education. 11 They would not be discord- 
ant with early Roman ideas. What we find in later times in 
this direction is perhaps a developed custom, not a new 
discovery. 

Home education. — In early Rome instruction was fre- 
quently, if not generally, carried on in the home, which was a 
strong one. It was much stronger than the Athenian home, 
because the mother had a more substantial position and was 
an influential factor in her children's education. 12 Two 
strong teachers made the home an impressive school. Another 
indication of the changed position of woman, which is appro- 
priately mentioned here, is the fact that this education of the 
elementary period was shared by both sexes. 

Ludi. — Schools for both sexes. — There were also from 
an early date outside schools to which children could be 
sent, 13 — simple affairs, but in accord with Roman ideas. We 
have a record of them as early as the fourth century B. C, and 
they seem then to be a regular institution, so that they probably 
began at a much earlier date. Here too provision was made 
for both sexes, and it is significant that school privileges were 
extended to girls even beyond what is technically called pri- 
mary education. 14 

10 Horace, Sat, I, 3:117ft; Epist., II, 1:70; Arts Poet, 343; 

11 See Clarke's Educ. of Children at Rome, and general reference 
books. 

12 Cicero, Brutus, 210; Monroe, op. cit., 362, 410-11; Pliny, op. cit., 
Ill, 3; VIII, 14; Tac. Or., 28. 

13 Martial, Epigs., IX, 8; Monroe, op. cit., 399-400. See Livy, III, 44, 
"Virgini venienti in Forum (ibi namque in tabernis literarum ludi 
erant) minister decemviri libidinis manura injecit," — quoted in Becker's 
Gallus; Conf. Livy, V, 27 (do.). 

14 Before Rome introduced her common sense way of looking at 
things, girls were practically left out of account in educational schemes, 
except in primitive tribes, and they played a minor part there. After 
a few centuries, especially after the early and fresher centuries of 
Christianity had passed, education again dropped them from its rolls, 
to a large extent, and became one-sided once more. 



ROME — EARLY PERIOD 105 

Physical training. — But we must not forget physical 
training. The hardy Roman character would make this one of 
the most natural parts of education. Mention of this has been 
reserved for this place, because it was not a part of the school, 
technically regarded, as in Greece. It was of a simple nature, 
and the appliances were also simple, much simpler and more 
practical than in Athens. There seems to have been no formal 
plan such as that found in the palaestra. Spontaneous games 
and exercises and the father's and mother's guidance and 
teaching were probably sufficient. There was no attempt at 
the esthetics of physical training. Health and power were the 
ends. 

Education from environment and folk-lore. — Aside from 
this training in the three lines indicated there was always that 
spontaneous education coming from impressive Roman life and 
environment, as well as that coming from the folk-lore of the 
people, which, though differing in quality and perhaps in 
amount from the body of folk-lore in Greece, yet formed a 
substantial body of educational material that became a posses- 
sion of the trained Roman. 

Results. — The elementary years gave the child posses- 
sion of simple forms and the means for practical communica- 
tion with his fellows, — all that was necessary for the early 
Roman state. As there was little literature, — nothing beyond 
the Laws and some indigenous forms of literature of a rudi- 
mentary type, — little was needed in the way of linguistics. 
Elementary training in reading and writing for practical pur- 
poses of business or simple records (inscriptions, etc.), and 
enough arithmetic for simple operations, with such proficiency 
as came from imitation and practice in common life, were 
enough. A study of science in these early times was unneces- 
sary. The Roman's practical sense gained through practical 
observation gave all that was required. The principle of 
apprenticeship would fulfil the demands in this direction. 

Secondary education — initiation. — Formal training was 
the work of primary education. Something different was pro- 
vided for the adolescent. It is true that he probably took 
pleasure in the old folk-lore, which appealed to him in new 
ways, but his principal business was to master the institutions 



106 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

of his country and round out his training for military service. 
In short, his was a special training in the most essential features 
of citizenship attendant on, or supplementary to, his initiation 
into the citizen body, the most significant ceremony in his life. 
At the end of his fifteenth or sixteenth year, on a festal occasion 
called the Liberalia, which occurred on March 16th, " the con- 
clusion of boyhood was commemorated, as among the Greeks," 
by special forms. The insignia pueritice and the bulla were 
dedicated with a sacrifice to the Lares at the domestic hearth. 
The toga prcetexta of boyhood was exchanged for the toga 
inrilis (or pur a or libera) with a ceremony at the home and 
a second one in the Forum. It was not till the toga virilis was 
taken that the name (given on the ninth day after birth) was 
confirmed, — another indication that full manhood was reached. 
The occasion was also distinguished by a special tunic called 
recta. After the home ceremonies the boy was escorted to the 
Forum, the center of the Roman state and of Roman politics. 
The company then proceeded to the Capitol to offer sacri- 
fice. 15 

Year of probation, and final stage of education.— Now 
began the boy's tirocinium or novitiate, the introductory stage 
of his public life. 16 " There was a year of transition or proba- 
tion during which the behavior of the adolescent was care- 
fully noted." In ancient times at least, the cohibere 
brachium and exercises in the Campus Martius were pre- 
scribed for him, 17 and to this we must add, it would seem, more 
extended physical exercise or drill, on this same field, that 
was naturally attractive to the adolescent. 

Following a model. — But the youth must have more than 
physical training; there was a life in the city as well as a 
life in the field. During the introductory period he " fre- 
quented the tribunals in the Forum ; . . . He was often under 
the guidance and direction of some striking personality, selected 
by his father, to whom he attached himself," following, ob- 
serving, imitating. Under these conditions he gained a very 

15 See Appian, B. C, IV : 20. 

16 " Cotta eo ipso die quo togam sumpsit virilem protenus ut e Capi- 
tolio descendit C. Carbonem, a quo pater eius damnatus fuerat, postu- 
lavit." — Val. Max., V, 4:4; Suetonius, Claud., 2. 

17 Cicero, Cael., 5. 



ROME — EARLY PERIOD 107 

practical acquaintance with the vital elements of public life. 18 
In very early times the ceremonies were perhaps of a simpler 
character and the father was probably oftener himself the at- 
tendant and director in public life. One cannot help admiring 
this personal solicitude for the pupil and the careful indi- 
vidual work done for him. The contrast with " mass " work 
is striking. 19 

Results. — Considering Roman intensity and self-con- 
sciousness it must be confessed that the boy, on entering pub- 
lic life at eighteen or nineteen, had a pretty definite training 
fitting him for Roman citizenship, and that it was attained by a 
method that appealed to the adolescent. There was little for- 
mal discipline, but there was much concrete training touching 
the intellectual, ethical, and physical sides of life. Suggestive 
ideals were impressed through models from Roman history, 
past and current, that were persistently held before the view, 
thus enforcing character and guiding to political efficiency. At 
the same time it should be noted that this represents the fully 
developed education of the early period. Back of it was, of 
course, the still simpler education typified by the schemes in 
Chapters I and II. 

Summary. — A summary in graphic form, as in previous 
chapters, will enable us to bring the facts together and to make 
some comparisons. 

18 " The youth who was intended for public declamation was in- 
troduced by his father or some near relation, with all the advantage 
of home discipline and a mind furnished with useful knowledge, to 
the most eminent orator of the time, whom henceforth he attended on 
all occasions. He listened with attention to his patron's pleadings in 
the tribunals of justice and his public harangues before the people. 
He heard him in the warmth of argument, he noted his sudden re- 
plies, and thus on the field of battle, if I may so express myself, he 
learned the first rudiments of rhetorical warfare." See Tacitus, Or. ; 
Monroe, op. cit., 368; Becker's Gallus, 198. See also Quintilian. 

The quotation perhaps contains some late details, but it illustrates 
the general practice. The references generally are from late authors, 
but the customs referred to were, in their fundamental ideas, un- 
questionably old. 

19 In addition to other sources the standard Classical Dictionaries 
have been used. They furnish various primary references. 



io8 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



Aim. — To train in a practical way a true Roman member of the 
family and the state (civic and military). — A strong, moral, pa- 
triotic, and (under the limitations of state supremacy) independent 
man. 

Curriculum and Method. 



Elementary (Girls and Boys) 

Language : — ( i ) Familiarity 
with folk-lore. (2) Reading 
(practical not esthetic). Ma- 
terial : — songs, hymns, hero- 
tales, XII Tables, 20 rudimen- 
tary Latin literature. (3) 
Writing. 

Number, — simple calculation. 

Mastery of form, spirit and spe- 
cial characteristics of com- 
munity life. 

Games. 

All education profoundly re- 
ligious. 

Early course advocated by Cato 
(a typical Roman) : reading, 
writing, Roman law, physical 
exercises (walking, riding, 
swimming, boxing) . 

Method : — Companionship, ob- 
servation, observance (imita- 
tion and practice). 

Formal studies : — Reading, — 
synthetic method; (1) name 
and order of letters; (2) form 
and use. Attention to expres- 
sion. Memory work. 

Writing synthetic plan, — imita- 
tion, tracing, etc. 

Morals, — precept, suggestion 
through literature, etc., emu- 
lation. 

Education domestic. Mother 
prominent. 

20 These laws are found in Wordsworth's " Fragments and Speci- 
mens of Early Latin." Oxford, 1874, and (in part) in Allen's " Rem- 
nants of Early Latin," Boston, 1880, and (in translation) in Monroe's 
" Source-Book." 

They show advanced political and social organization, but a rather 
simple industrial development. Ideas of justice are high. 



Secondary 
Boy assumes toga virilis at 16 
with special ceremonies (re- 
ligious, etc.). Is enrolled. 
Training in public and private 
life. Continues learning of 
rudimentary literature, etc. 
(See elementary course.) 



Chants national songs. 

Gymnastic exercises in C. M. 
for military purposes. — Prac- 
tical end, as opposed to the 
larger idea of Greeks, who in- 
cluded an esthetic purpose. 



Method : — Companionship of 
father in Forum, streets, etc. 

In later times was added com- 
panionship of model man 
chosen by father. 

Observation and practice. 

Carriage watched, 



ROME — EARLY PERIOD 109 

One section deals with the patria potestas, showing the extensive 
power of the father. The son could not be free from the father till 
three sales and emancipations had been consummated. Family organ- 
ization was excessively strong. 

" Three successive sales of the son by the father release the former 
from the patria potestas." Tab. IV. 

One passage deals with wrongs inflicted by a tutor on his pupillus. 
Two passages place those above and those below puberty on a different 
footing. 

He who during the night furtively either cuts or depastures his neigh- 
bor's crops, if of the age of puberty, shall be devoted to Ceres and put 
to death ; if under that age, he shall be scourged at the discretion of 
the magistrate and condemned in penalty of double the damage done. 
Tab. VIII. 

A thief taken in the act, if a freeman, shall be scourged and made 
over by addictio to the person robbed, but those under the age of 
puberty shall, at the discretion of the magistrate, be scourged and con- 
demned to repair the damage. Tab. VIII. 



VIII 

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN ROME — LATER PERIOD 

Changes in the later period.^— In the second period of 
Roman education Rome underwent changes similar to those 
we have traced in Greece, similar, but not the same, for there 
was a difference in stock and in circumstances. 

Rome came into ever-widening contact with other peoples 
and conditions. It was not the contact of a cosmopolitan 
people nor of a great commercial people with reciprocal influ- 
ences, cultural and practical, but first of all a contact of domi- 
nation and Romanization. Every new state Rome touched — 
and touching was to gain — she at once organized as a part of 
her great imperial system that was developed long before the 
Empire came. She at once started the machinery for govern- 
ing and assimilating. Hence the effect was more political than 
cultural. Yet the cultural was bound to be an element in the 
new acquisitions, for the larger part of the territory into which 
Rome penetrated in her early expansion was charged with it. 
However slight an impression it made at first on the new mili- 
tary power in the West, the spirit of culture is always tenacious 
of life and is sure to grow even on inhospitable soil. But 
Roman soil was far from being inhospitable. On the contrary 
it was distinctly favorable, though it would never produce the 
same quality of culture as Greece. This, however, was neither 
necessary nor desirable. 

Thus Roman ideas were broadening generally, in cultural as 
well as in political and practical lines. Mere living in the 
midst of such a thoroughly organized system, involving widely 
separated and divergent peoples and states welded by master- 
ful Roman ideas, gave a broader education. Much more did 
it require a broader and more technical education to partici- 
pate in it. 

As far as education was concerned the greatest influence in 
this world-wide contact came from Greece, first from Italian 

no 



ROME — LATER PERIOD in 

Greece, which was early incorporated with Rome, then, intensi- 
fied and enlarged, from Old Greece itself. Hence came lit- 
erary ideals and culture ideas that were at first reluctantly, 1 
and then eagerly, absorbed. 

Changes therefore came from the growth and expansion of 
Rome and from the stimulus of other culture nations. But 
it should be remembered that greater and more vital changes 
came from the natural development of indigenous Roman 
qualities such as we have referred to more than once. From 
the combined influences at home and abroad came the follow- 
ing significant results that should be noticed, if we are to 
understand the changes in education now taking place: — 

1. Democracy. — There was a notable growth in Roman 
democracy with its intricate system of assemblies, giving play 
to the political energies of all the people. This growth fol- 
lowed the exigencies of the moment rather than any logically 
arranged plan, just as the English constitution has grown. 
Every movement therefore was an educational episode. Be- 
yond this was the organization of the provincial government, 
which was systematic and logical, made by trained minds, and 
occupying them in its execution. 

2. System of law. — In connection with local and provin- 
cial government Rome had developed a system of law, with 
its machinery, that made a model for the world. It was with- 
out precedent, a genuine Roman product, a natural outgrowth 
of her organizing power. Trained minds made it. It 
required trained minds to man it. 

3. Language and literature. — There was a wonderful 
growth of language and literature. First, indigenous Roman 
literature made considerable progress before more finished 
Greek models supplanted it. The latter, however, quickly gave 
a form and spirit that native genius alone would probably 
never have given, because the Roman bent was not that way. 
A wealth of literature was thus quickly at command. It was 
a great educational force and at the same time served as a con- 
spicuous aim in education. Some of it was borrowed out- 
right, some of it was produced through imitation, an imitation 
however into which Roman genius and personality were 

1 See page 116. 



ii2 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

injected. A nation may advance more, and more quickly 
secure rich educational material, through such imitation than 
through unaided effort, if it is fortunate in its models, and 
Rome was fortunate. 

4. Practical arts. — Great strides were made in practical 
arts and the sciences on which they were founded. Rome's 
public works still excite admiration. Such accomplishments 
would give greater emphasis to practical studies than was 
found in Greece. 

5. Roman art had a marked development. Though she 
added some conspicuous features to architecture, her art was 
generally copy. But it was good copy from good teachers and 
afforded still further culture material. 

6. Individual development. — With it all, the period de- 
veloped an individualism comparable with that of Greece, but 
somewhat more stable, because not unanchored. The state 
was a stronger influence in Rome than in Greece. Men could 
not so easily set it aside. But Roman individualism was nar- 
rower than the Grecian; the latter was both intellectual and 
utilitarian, with emphasis on the intellectual; the other was 
primarily practical. In each case it gave more freedom in 
education and accelerated progress. 

We may divide the most characteristic changes into two 
groups, 1, changes in Roman thought, feelings, and activities, 
due to Greek influence ; 2, changes due to the natural expansion 
and growth of Rome herself and all that Rome stood for. 
There was something distinctly Roman, a kind of Roman 
genius, that remained and gave character to everything. 
Nowhere is this more evident than in education. 

Comparison of early and late conditions in Rome. — The 
main changes in the second period of Roman education as com- 
pared with the first may be seen graphically and a little more in 
detail by reference to the following table of comparisons as to 
civic and social ideas in the two periods into which we have 
divided Roman history for our present purpose. 

Early Period Late Period 

1. State, small, compact, — at 1. Rome imperial in size and 
most confined to Italy. power, though not in gov- 

ernment till the end of the pe- 



ROME — LATER PERIOD 



113 



2. Attention engrossed by class 
contests within, settlement 
of the scheme of govern- 
ment, contests with sur- 
rounding peoples. Objects 
of effort therefore were in- 
ternal life and Italian su- 
premacy, not culture. Ed- 
ucation simple, practical. 



3. Thought simple, direct, mat- 
ter-of-fact. 



4. Art simple, practical; reli- 
gious architecture, city 
walls, etc. 



5. Language and literature un- 

developed ; folk-lore, — f ab- 
ulse Atellanse, mimus, sat- 
urse. Only rudiments of 
literature, but indigenous. 
Of rude scenic nature for 
most part. 

6. Individual devoted to state. 

This is the fundamental idea 
of life. Intense civic life. 

7. Ideal. — Preparation for state 

service. 



riod. Relations more com- 
plex. Wider contact with 
other civilizations (Greek). 

2. New interests and new ideas 

come to view. 

Old Roman character (see 
above) so strongly rooted 
that new culture forces its 
way slowly and takes on a 
distinctly Roman type. 
Colored by Roman traits. 

Civilization wider, more com- 
plex. Education practical. 
Broader, more complex 
than before. 

3. Thought simple and direct, 

but operates in a wider field. 
Concerned with wider 
knowledge. Greek civiliza- 
tion influences. 

4. Art has grown under Greek 

stimulus and in part through 
Greek artists. Period of 
civic and private esthetics. 
Real Roman art practical, 
substantial, dignified. 

5. Language developed for lit- 

erary purposes. A new lit- 
erature ; translations, imi- 
tations, original productions 
grow rapidly. Some genu- 
ine esthetic feeling in litera- 
ture. 

6. Individual devoted to state, 

but less strenuously in later 
years. 

7. Ideal. — The orator. 



A Roman ideal. — Under these conditions the ruling ideal 
is not far to seek. More than in Greece the power of words 
was the key to influence and preferment. From the time of 
the irrepressible conflict, when the Plebs burst into the old 
exclusive organization of the Patricians, 2 skill in debate became 
increasingly prominent and increasingly exacting. The hust- 

2 De Coulanges, op. cxt., 252, 258, 307, 360. 



H4 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

ings, advocacy of measures in the various assemblies, the 
lawyer's profession, success in provincial government, all 
suggested and demanded it. 3 Rome was full of action and 
expression. The quiet ideals of the scholar were not for her. 
Romans became statesmen of a practical type, and became as 
naturally orators. Public speaking as a leading object of 
effort was emphasized by the very concentration of Rome's 
interests. Thought would be focused on this object more 
fully in a purely martial and political republic than in a many- 
sided democracy that supplied more means of influence. 

Requirements for meeting the new aim. — However it may 
be explained, men's thoughts fastened on the orator as an ideal, 
beyond anything seen before. As in Greece, so in Rome, the 
scope of his position grew to be so large and the needed equip- 
ment so broad and detailed that an elaborate and thorough 
course of training was required, — for the technique of his 
profession to give his speech form, for general culture and 
information to give it substance, and for mental training to 
give it effect. So the orator in his studies must cover the 
whole range of human knowledge. The old natural training 
of early Rome, all-sufficient then, was no longer enough. 
Language power had become a fine art. It required a more 
thorough training than in Greece, for public speaking had evi- 
dently become a more exacting profession. It was likely to be 
more thorough, because thoroughness was a native character- 
istic of the Romans, while brilliance characterized the Greeks. 
The calling of the lawyer emphasized qualifications similar to 
those of the orator and thus required a similar course of train- 
ing. In fact the two callings became identical in preparation. 

Influence of the art of authorship. — With the growth in 
language and literature, literary culture and the art of author- 
ship also demanded an advance in training to meet the higher 
requirements. The orator's education, from the very nature 
of Rome's broad conception of her ideal, admirably met these 
demands of literature, for it involved a very definite study of 
literary ideals and broad and intense work in composition. 

Need of a new school. — Everything points therefore to 
the need of a new school, new studies, and new methods, to 

3 Appendix 2 ; Cicero, Murena, 14 ; Tactitus, Or., 36, 



ROME — LATER PERIOD 115 

supply the rather formidable requirements of the times. A 
well defined elementary school had been established in the 
early epoch. In the period under review it was somewhat 
modified by the new spirit that was strongly influencing educa- 
tion. What was needed, both from the logic of growth and 
from the demands of the " orator," was a well equipped sec- 
ondary school. The secondary age was just the one to be 
inspired by the orator-ideal and get a good grasp of it. 

A model at hand. — Greece had already developed the 
more detailed and technical curriculum needed to meet the 
new conditions in Rome. It was found in her grammar and 
rhetorical schools. 4 With other Greek contributions, wel- 
comed and absorbed by the new Western culture, these schools 
would naturally come to Rome. The Romans themselves had 
the ability to invent the needed school under the pressing 
stimulus of the times. But they had a model at hand that only 
needed developing and adjusting to meet Roman thought and 
conditions. Rome was able to give system and organization to 
the training of the orator. It is hard to tell which is most 
responsible for the new school, Greek models or Roman 
character. 

In thinking of this advance in school training we are attend- 
ing merely to the practical demands of the situation. We 
must not forget, however, that education has inherent power 
of growth for its own sake, and that, with the general growth 
of a people many push on in education without regard to the 
practical. 

Character of the secondary school. — From the emphasis 
on language power the secondary school quite naturally was a 
grammar school. Its name and curriculum were perpetuated 
in the grammar school of the Middle Ages, and the name still 
survives in the great Grammar Schools, or Public Schools, of 
England. This school developed gradually from small begin- 
nings in the third century B. C. to the fully organized gram- 
mar school of the first century. 5 

Beyond this school was the Rhetor School that was partly 

4 See Chapter V. 

5 Appendix 1 ; Becker, Galltis, 191-2. This was for boys only, though 
the education of women had advocates even in those times. 



n6 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

secondary. The lines of separation between the two schools 
were not always, if ever, hard and fast ones. There was fre- 
quent overlapping, one school taking some of the matter and 
functions of the other. 6 

Opposition. — The new education, particularly the art of 
rhetoric, naturally had its critics and opponents. The criticism 
was often just, for the laxer morals and looser methods of the 
schools, the apparently superficial work of the teachers of the 
speaking art, and the shading of the old practical civic ideal 
naturally excited strong prejudice in the sober, practical minds 
of the Romans. Opposition went so far sometimes that it 
resulted in state prohibition. But the new came in to meet a 
definite need. While details may have been bad, its main pur- 
pose was a logical and wholesome one. It quickly became 
popular and secured permanent standing, 7 and at its best could 
claim as much dignity and moral stamina as the older forms 
and processes. The old civic ideal and the old morale had not 
vanished. They still had influence enough to steady new 
forms. 

Core of the curriculum. — The core of the Grammar School 
curriculum was linguistics, both Latin and Greek. 8 Rome was 
the first nation to make a formal study of a foreign language 
a conspicuous part of school life. Very early, not far from 
the beginning of the fourth century, 9 a knowledge of Greek 
was a convenience, if not a necessity. 

Greek the leading language at first. — At first Greek was 
probably studied privately by certain people; the grammar 
school was not yet developed or was in its infancy. But by 

6 Quintilian, Inst. Orat, II : i ; Suetonius, Lives of Gram. (Monroe 
op. cit., 351-2.) 

7 Quintilian, Inst. Orat., II, 1:1; Suetonius, op. cit., (Monroe, Source 
Book, 352-3). 

Ancient discipline in the broad sense had become demoralized. Boys 
ruled. There was inattention on the part of those who pretended to 
give instruction. "The mischief began at Rome, and has overrun all 
Italy." See Tactitus, Or., 28, 31-2, 35 (Monroe, op. cit., 360 rr*.) ; 
Plautus, Bac, III : 3. 

For other criticism see Quintilian, op. cit., II: 10; Juvenal, Sat., VII, 
XIV (Monroe, op. cit., 416 ff.). 

8 Quintilian, op. cit., I. It was significantly called literatura, thus 
showing something of its scope, Do., II, 1 : 4. 

9 Laurie, op. cit., 344. 



ROME — LATER PERIOD 117 

the second century, or earlier, it was a commanding part of 
the school program, coming in perhaps with Greek grammar- 
ians. 10 At first Greek was the only language taught in the 
grammar schools, 11 probably because the early grammatici, or 
at least the best of them, were Greeks. Cicero (Brutus, 90) 
says, 

" I constantly declaimed in private with Marcus Piso, Quintus 
Pompeius, or some other of my acquaintances, pretty often in 
Latin, but much oftener in Greek, because the Greek furnishes a 
greater variety of ornaments and an opportunity for imitating 
and introducing them into Latin; and because the Greek masters, 
who were by far the best, could not direct and improve us unless 
we declaimed in that language." 

But in time Latin came to take the precedence. In fact Latin 
rapidly developed as a literary and oratorical language with 
high possibilities. 

Favorite authors. — The Latin authors most read at first 
were those of the golden age, Vergil, Horace and Lucan; but 
later, about the time of Quintilian's death, came a change that 
brought into favor old masters of prose and verse, — Gracchus, 
Nsevius, Plautus and others. 12 

Studies. — The curriculum thus included first of all lan- 
guage. It was studied intensively, and included orthography, 
grammar (with little syntax), pronunciation, literary style and 
content, artistic reading, declamation, composition, literature, 
in many schools elementary rhetoric and delivery, 13 and even 
music, which was thought to have special power to give quality 
to oral and written language. The curriculum included also 
geography and astronomy, which won favor both as informa- 
tional and as practical subjects; geometry, which was taken 
up for its disciplinary value and its utility in common life ; 14 
arithmetic, of a practical nature; and history. Of these sub- 

10 Do., 359; Quintilian, op. cit., I. 

11 Harper's Die. of Clas. Antiq., sub. voc, education. 

12 Smith's Die. of Greek and Roman Antiq, sub voc., Ludus Literarius. 

13 Quintilian, op. cit., I, 4-1 1, (study of literature, I, 8; composition 
I, 9; Rhetoric, II, 1). 

14 " In summo apud eos honore geometria f uit ; itaque nihil mathe- 
maticis inlustrius. At nos metiendi, ratiocinandi utilitate huius artis 
terminavumus modum," — Cicero, Tusc, I, 2, 5. 



n8 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

jects astronomy, geography, and history 15 seem to have been 
correlated subjects, being taken up in connection with lan- 
guage study. The language subjects were thus the ones that 
were developed with the greatest care and system. Other 
subjects were subordinate and often of a very elementary 
character. Science, including geography, was probably quite 
primitive, though the latter subject with its appliances would 
doubtless compare favorably with its counterpart in compara- 
tively modern curricula. It should be noted also that the 
Roman attitude toward subjects was in strong contrast with 
the typical attitude of the Greeks who had more of the ideal in 
their dealings with them. 16 

Physical training. — But there was another side to the 
curriculum, — physical training, which, though relatively more 
important in early Rome, held an important place in the adoles- 
cent's training at this time. It was even regarded as a useful 
and necessary part of the orator's training. Physical form 
and grace of manner and carriage had their force in com- 
mending him to hearers. 17 Beauty was a means, not an end 
as in Greece. Hence we now find schools of exercise in addi- 
tion to the regular Campus Martius exercises referred to 
before, and they seem to have something of the Greek idea 
in their conduct. 17 

Moral training. — Ethical training continued to receive at- 
tention. Roman educators, true to the old Roman feeling, 
still made the subject one of absorbing interest in the cur- 
riculum. But the evidence tends to show that the old Roman 
ideal had been weakened here as in other matters. 18 Such 
schoolmasters as Quintilian, however, more than revived the 
older thought, — they revived and systematized it, so that 
moral values were constantly considered in making out the 
pupil's course of training. 19 

15 History occupied a larger and more important place than the 
others. 

16 Laurie, op. cit., 357 ff. ; Quintilian, op. cit., passim; Cicero, Brutus, 

9i, 93. 

17 " Nobis quidem olim annus erat ad cohibendum brachium toga con- 
stitutes et ut exercitatione ludoque campestri tunicati uteretur," Cicero, 
Cael., 5. 

18 Plautus, Bac. Ill, 3; Tacitus, Or. 28, (Monroe, op. cit., 360 ff.). 
19 Quintilian, op. cit., I: 11. 



ROME — LATER PERIOD 119 

Teachers. — The designations of teachers who were in 
charge of Roman schools were significant, — grammatici and 
rhetores. In Greece both would have come under the general 
class of sophists. Rhetores were termed sophists at Rome. 
Teachers came to be held in high honor, for the practical 
Roman ideal of the period gave them a place that few teachers 
have occupied. They were in reality the center of the Roman 
political development. Quintilian's finest passages lay great 
stress on the fundamental duty of choosing teachers with great 
discrimination, especially for early work. 20 

Method in language elaborate. — The typical method 
was a formal one as far as language proper was concerned. 
It included dictation exercises, 21 reproduction, grammatical 
drill, paraphrasing, translation, 22 a critical study of the lan- 
guage and literary qualities of poets, the exegesis of the poets, 
and memory work. But, in general, mastery of rules, imita- 
tion, including a careful study of literary models, and abundant 
practice were the characteristic features of method. Clarke 23 
describes a combination reading, language and literature lesson 
as follows : 24 

Language and literature. — " Before the pupil read his lesson 
the teacher probably first read it over for him (praelegere), in 
order to show him how he wished it to be done. Then he made 
the sense of the passage clear, knowing that the first requisite 
of good reading is a thorough understanding. Difficult words 
and historical and mythological allusions were explained, and 
attention was called to poetical licenses, foreign words, figures 
of speech, unusual turns of expression, and the varying senses of 
the words according to their context. Occasion was taken to 
impress on the pupil's mind the importance of orderly arrange- 
ment, and of the suitable treatment of different subjects and 
characters, to point out beauties of sentiment and diction, and to 
explain how in one place diffuseness, in another brevity, is de- 
sirable. To insure his perfect understanding of a passage the 

20 Quintilian, op. cit., 1 : 1 ; II : 2-3. 

21 Cicero, Q. F., Ill, 1:4; Horace, Epist. II, 1:69 ft*. ; Laurie, op. cit., 
368 ff. These dictation exercises^ were useful also in performing part 
of the function of text books in the early days, when books were 
scarce. 

22 Pliny, Epist. VII, 9 ; Monroe, op. cit., 413 ff. 

23 Clarke, op. cit., 112 ff. 

24 Cicero, Brutus, 89, 91; Appendix to Chap. IX; see also reference 
22, 



120 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

pupil was required to give a prose paraphrase of it, and to ex- 
plain the metrical construction. Moral lessons were drawn from 
the words of the poet, and it was explained how the poet's fancy 
might make use of fictitious situations and characters to present 
valuable truths." 25 

" Thus the reading lessons from the poets were made the means 
of instruction in many different subjects — practical ethics, gram- 
mar, composition, elocution, geography, mythology, and history." 

It is to be noticed that poetry was the standard literature 
for the Grammar School ; 26 prose was relegated to the Rhetor 
School. Whether intended or not, poetry did not ill-suit the 
age of grammar, i. e., secondary, school, pupils, though selec- 
tions from prose literature were also desirable and essential. 

So much for methods in language work. The main fea- 
tures and principles have been given here. Much interesting 
matter as to details will be found in the following chapter and 
its appendix, where they can be more appropriately taken up. 

Rhetoric. — In rhetoric there was concrete work in con- 
nection with literature, if we may infer that Quintilian's 
description of method represents the general practice. 27 There 
were also text-books and schemes ("topics") to guide pupils 
in developing themes or f orensics. An illustration of the latter 
is given in the appendix. 28 

Geography and history. — Some hint of method in geog- 
raphy and history has already been given in saying that they 
were correlated subjects. History came through the reading 
of Roman and Greek historians, through following allusions 
in language work, and through the idealization of Roman 
heroes. In all this the Roman boy got a vivid and impressive 
idea of Roman achievements and Roman political ideals, and 
must also have mastered the main facts of Greek history. As 
to geography it is interesting to note that map work was the 
conspicuous means of teaching. This was the only practical 
method. 

25 Such a minute study of literature at the adolescent period would 
have killed real interest in it, if there had not been some intense ob- 
ject in view, making even such martyrdom tolerable. 

26 Quintilian, op. cit., I, 8, g ; II, 4, 5, 7 ; Smith's Gr. and Rom. Antiqs. 
See Appendix 3. 

27 Quintilian, op. cit., I, 8; II, 5. 

28 Appendix 5. 



ROME — LATER PERIOD 121 

Moral instruction. — The method of moral instruction was 
the most concrete of all, because there was a wealth of illus- 
trative material here. Training was given impressively 
through literature and history, and through living models to 
whom Roman boys were attached for the purpose of learning 
their methods of public speaking. 29 

Group teaching. — As to organization of instruction, there 
was doubtless the ordinary class work, but it is very interest- 
ing to find reference to group teaching for the sake of meet- 
ing individual qualities and stimulating emulation. For such 
purposes group teaching offers better opportunities than class 
teaching. It is still more interesting to find a number of refer- 
ences which indicate regard for the individual without thought 
of emulation. They show that early secondary schools made 
the adolescent the basis of their work, at least that they had 
a sympathetic regard for him. 3Q Quintilian's description of 
the best school practices throws strong emphasis upon indi- 
vidual work. 

The new school a prototype. — There has thus been es- 
tablished, — in part developed, and in part adopted and 
adapted, — a formal school program for the adolescent in place 
of the free and natural training of the early period. This was 
the Grammar School. It was presided over by the Gram- 
maticus, the Roman grammar master, prototype of the more 
modern grammar masters in the secondary schools of Europe, 31 
particularly of England, and of the early grammar masters of 
this country, in our earliest secondary schools. This Gram- 
mar School became at the end of the first century a well-organ- 
ized, a well-systematized, and a powerful institution, a great 
moulding force in the Roman world. Practical aims were 
prominent in these Roman schools at their best period, but at 
the same time cultural ideas and opportunities were there and 
had no inconsiderable influence. 

The typical form. — Schools varied in scope and program. 

29 "Long is the path through moral preaching; short and efficacious 
that through example." Sen., Epist. VI : 5. 

30 Quintilian, op. cit., I, 2 : 23. See also Appendix to Chapter IX. 

31 A European Grammar School takes pupils earlier and keeps them 
longer than our High School, so that comparisons as to names, ages, 
and curricula cannot be exact. 



122 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

They probably varied in method and spirit as well. 32 The 
fundamental branches with language and literature, music and 
geometry are said to have formed the curriculum for the 
majority. The typical school however was the Grammar 
School whose program has been described on the preceding 
pages. It was the center and determining influence of the 
Roman school world, the distinctive product of the period. 
Variations only illustrate the type. 33 

This school gave the preliminary training for the summum 
bonum 34 of the ambitious Roman, the orator. To carry out 
this aim in full, however, regularly required additional study 
and training. This was supplied by the Rhetor School 35 for 
which the Grammar School was preparatory. 

The Rhetor School. — The Rhetor School continued the 
work in composition, elocution, and mnemonics, making it 
more intensive. It developed style and effectiveness in writing 
and confidence in delivery that were preparatory to entering 
the Forum. 36 It evidently included at least two years of sec- 
ondary work corresponding to the last two years of our high 
school curriculum. But it included also higher, or, as we 
should say, university training through studies not specified 
in the lower curriculum, and taken up there, if at all, only in a 
correlated and very elementary and concrete way, — studies 
like psychology and philosophy, essential for giving a solid 

32 There were of course various kinds of schools as to breadth, 
standards, and thoroughness. Then again there were schools that 
gave themselves sensibly to their appointed tasks, suited to the pupils 
under their charge, and schools that aped higher schools and grasped at 
some of their tasks. All this was to be expected under private initia- 
tive before the days of uniform state aims.' It should be noted also 
that some pupils went from the grammar schools to other professions 
than that of the orator, and for them a simpler curriculum may have 
been sufficient. See Laurie, op. cit., 361. 

33 Suetonius, Lives of Gram. (Quintilian). See Smith's Die. of 
Antiq. 

34 Tacitus, Or., 36; Cicero, Mur., 4. See Clarke, op. cit. 

35 Appendix 2 ; Becker, op. cit., 192. 

Young men sometimes went directly from the Grammar School to 
the Forum, thus abbreviating their curriculum and proportionally 
weakening it. Then as now, they hurried toward the goal, and often 
missed it. Suetonius, Lives of Gram. ; Monroe, op. cit.; Quintilian also 
refers to it. 

36 See below, pp. 125-6. 



ROME — LATER PERIOD 123 

basis for oratory, and studies like civil law, needed by the ora- 
tor on the technical side in his capacity as lawyer. This school 
will be considered more in detail in the next chapter. 37 

Rome and Greece compared. — In Greece we found two 
typical schools, the practical language school, or school of 
rhetoric, and the philosophical school. The Romans devoted 
themselves especially to the first. They, however, combined 
with it, for practical purposes in giving finishing touches to 
the orator, the main features of dialectic, but rather in form 
than in the philosophic spirit of the Greeks. Diagogic educa- 
tion was foreign to the ideals of Rome, except for the special 
few. 

A brief summary in tabular form will give a general view 
of Roman secondary education of this period. It is not neces- 
sary to go further into details here. An extended and minute 
description of the fully developed secondary school under 
Quintilian is given in the Appendix to the next chapter. 

Roman Education of the Second Period. 

Aim: — A practical one. To prepare for a career in State or 
Forum is the most practical idea. All else is subservient. In 
spite of the practical aim, however, a high degree of culture re- 
sulted. 

Women enjoyed elementary education and something more. 38 

The curriculum: — 

Elementary — Ages J-ll Secondary — Grammar School 
{Girls and Boys). — Ages 12-15 
Similar in subjects to education Language: — Reading (ad- 
of the early period. But more vanced), — diction and ex- 
attention to rapid writing ad- pression emphasized; reading 
vocated by Quintilian. as a fine art. 
Greek added, — taught conversa- Grammar (Greek and Lat- 
tionally. (Greek became the in), with minute philological 
prominent language in educa- treatment of at least Latin 
tion.) grammar, but not much syn- 
Form and expression em- tax, and no parsing. Dicta- 
phasized in reading. Hon exercises (supply the 

place of text-book, etc.). 

Material: — XII Laws, Homer, Literature (extracts from 

37 See Chapter IX, Appendix, p. 142. 

38 See Appendix 4, and Chapter VII, p. 104. 



124 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



Coun- 



ballads, etc. Maps, 
ters and abacus. 
Child more under attendants 
and in school. So more at- 
tention to formal education, 
which was of rather a severe 
type. Domestic forces weak- 
ened. 



poets memorized). "Critical 
study of language and literary 
qualities of poets " ; also " ex- 
planation of poets." 

Composition, Declamation, 
Elementary Rhetoric, and Or- 
atory. 

Writing (parchment and pen 
now; wax-tablet is the stu- 
dent's "scratch book)." 

Mathematics, — arithmetic, ^ ge- 
ometry, astronomy (simple 
and concrete). 

History, — correlated. 

Geography, — correlated. 

Music, — rhythm and mQter. 
Contrasted with Greek 
ideas. 

Gymnastic exercises, — for 
health and military pur- 
poses. End a practical, not 
an educational one. 

Material : — Writing utensils. 
Maps. Books, — JEsop, Ho- 
mer and other poets; also 
prose works; but poetry espe- 
cially emphasized. 

Linguistic training the core of 
secondary education. All else 
subordinate. Latin growing 
as a culture language and win- 
ning first place. 

In addition to this the boy des- 
tined for oratory (the legal 
profession) had two secondary 
years in the Rhetor School 
studying composition, elo- 
cution, and literature, and 
other years of higher work 
elsewhere. 39 

Method in the Secondary school: — Language and literature. 
Artistic work in reading. Dictation. Reproduction. Paraphras- 
ing. Grammatical drill. Prosody and verse writing. Translation 
(including cross-translation). Interpretation or exegesis of poets 

39 Varro's curriculum was grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, 
astronomy, dialectic, medicine, architecture, music. 



ROME — LATER PERIOD 125 

("explanation of the poets"). Close, critical study of literature. 
— Elementary Rhetoric and Oratory : — Scheme and specimens 
for guidance and training; also text-book work.— Geography, 
map work. — History, correlated with language work. Quintilian 
advocates concrete and correlated work. — Ethical teaching: Cor- 
related with writing, etc. Emulation, rewards. 

Outside of literature text-books instruction was chiefly oral. 
Work often superficial except in linguistics. 

Memory work, imitation, and practice were the prominent fea- 
tures of method. 40 

Initiation ceremonies.— But we must not allow this con- 
spicuous and engrossing program of study and training to 
occupy the field of vision so fully as to hide the old forms. 
The typical ceremonies of the old adolescent course still 
remained. The formal exchange of togas, the sacrifice at 
the Capitol, the " entering of the Forum," with other charac- 
teristic forms, were all present. These ceremonies, or at least 
some of them, had probably increased in elaborateness and 
detail, but decreased in real meaning and in vital relation to 
characteristic instincts. In the lapse of time instincts them- 
selves had become quiescent or had been supplanted. The old 
was rather present as a persistent form ; the new represented 
the actual and real for the training of Roman youth, except so 
far as sentiment and ceremony served to give significance to 
changes that occurred at the adolescent period, when the young 
Roman assumed a new attitude toward work and life, — par- 
ticularly toward the state. There was one part of the old, 
however, that remained in vigor. This was the special feature 

40 Method in higher education. See page 122. 
m Specialized, and conducted in different places calculated to give prac- 
tical training for different pursuits. Study for scholarship attracted 
some. For those who entered public life the higher education was 
advanced training in oratory in rhetorical schools. Training here was 
given in great detail, following naturally from the secondary course; 
an . intensive course of work, essentially literary, or linguistic, but re- 
quiring the whole range of knowledge, to give foundation and sub- 
stance. Mathematics, law, and philosophy were studied under special 
teachers, but not regarded as essential factors in rhetorical schools; 
they were useful for an orator however (see Quintilian). They were 
" merely touched," except by the few. Law and oratory were the sum 
and substance of the curriculum for public life. Post-graduate work 
was sometimes carried on at Athens, Rhodes, etc. See Cicero Ad At 
XII, 32. 



126 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

of the old secondary training represented in the expressions 
"in Forum venire," "Forum attingere." The Roman youth 
depended much on this for his practical grasp of Roman public 
life. 41 

Net results of the period. — The last chapters show that 
with the rise of letters the elementary school came as an intro- 
duction to secondary work, and that the higher school was 
added on the other side to give the technique for professional 
work. The typical secondary school, shown most character- 
istically on Roman soil and in Quintilian's time, thus became 
a formal institution related above and below and accordingly 
modified in function and curriculum. Its function was a 
double one, looking on one side toward culture, and on the 
other toward preparation for the one profession that monopo- 
lized attention at the time. In effect it was a vocational school, 
or rather an introduction to vocational study. It was cultural, 
because success as an orator involved the highest degree of 
culture. The old thought, however, that centered in civic de- 
velopment and patriotic mastery of the inheritances of the race 
was still evident, both in initiation ceremonies, preserved in 
semblance at least, in great feeling for state service, even 
though largely a matter of personal ambition, and in enthusi- 
asm for the achievements of the city-state in literature and 
politics. 

APPENDIX 

I. " Grammar." — " The science of grammar was in ancient times 
far from being in vogue at Rome ; indeed it was of little use in a rude 
state of society, when the people were engaged in constant wars and 
had not much time to bestow on the liberal arts. At the outset its pre- 
tensions were very slender, for the earliest men of learning, who were 
both poets and orators, may be considered as half-Greek. I speak 
of Livius and Ennius who are acknowledged to have taught both 
languages, as well at Rome as in foreign parts. But they only trans- 
lated from the Greek, and if they composed anything of their own in 
Latin, it was only from what they had before read." 

" Crates of Mallos . . . was in our opinion the first who introduced 
the study of grammar (of course in the Roman sense) at Rome." This 
was about 157 b. c. 

41 Cicero, Amic. 1 ; Becker, op. cit. Probably the passage quoted 
from Tacitus on page 107 has more force here than in the first period. 



ROME — LATER PERIOD 127 

"The appellation of Grammarian was borrowed from the Greeks, 
but at first the Latins called such persons Literati." — Suetonius, Lives 
of Gram.; Monroe, Source Book, 349-50. 

2. Subject matter of the orator. — Tacitus in his Dial, de Or. says 
that " the old orators did not think it necessary to declaim in the 
schools, and to exercise their tongues and their voices alone upon 
fictitious controversies, remote from reality, but rather to fill their 
minds with such studies as concern life and manners, as treat of moral 
good and evil, of justice and injustice, of the decent and the unbecoming 
in actions, because these constitute the subject matter of the orator." 

3. Services of poets. — " The tender lisping mouth of a child the poet 
forms ; even in their early days he turns the ears of the young from 
evil words ; presently he fashions the heart by kindly precepts ; he is 
the corrector of roughness, of malice, of anger; he tells of virtuous 
deeds ; the dawn of life he furnishes with illustrious examples ; the 
helpless and sad of soul he comforts. Whence could the pious boys 
and virgins learn their hymns of prayer, had not the Muse granted 
us a bard? The chorus prays for aid, and Heaven's presence feels, 
and in set form of persuasive prayer implores rain from above, averts 
disease, drives away dreaded dangers, obtains peace and a season rich 
with its crops. Appeased by hymns are gods above and gods below." 
— Hor., Epist. II, 1, 126 ff. (Monroe, op. cit., 398.) 

4. Education of women. — Musonius speaks of the education of 
women, and thinks that as far as the culture of virtue is concerned 
they should have the same education as men ; and again he says, " only, 
as regards any of the most important matters, let not the one be taught 
differently from the other." He admits however that each sex has its 
appropriate field, and he would make some exceptions in education, such 
as omitting gymnastics for women. But he sets great store by philos- 
ophy (the science of matters regarding life) for both men and women. 
See quotations from Musonius given by Laurie, op. cit., 427 ff. (Mon- 
roe, op. cit., 401.) 

5. Scheme for composition. — " It is not to be supposed that the 
Roman boy had thrown on him the impossible task of producing the 
exercises above referred to without help and guidance." He was aided 
in this by "topics" ("loci"), which "had for their object the fixed 
development of a subject in a certain form and the art of finding 
arguments. Without entering into details, which however are interest- 
ing educationally, I shall borrow from Professor Jullien a statement 
of the topical hints for an exercise on a chria, i.e., dictum or pregnant 
sentence ascribed to some distinguished man: e.g., Plato says 'the 
Muses dwell in the soul of the cultured man.' " 

1. A laudation of the writer to whom the utterance or deed was 

ascribed. 

2. The paraphrase, in which the thought was expanded. 

3. The motif or underlying principle, which explained and justified 

the truth of the thought. 



128 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

4. Comparison, i.e., the comparison of the thought with other 

thoughts like or unlike, just as Plutarch compares characters 
in his Lives. 

5. The example, which was furnished by some distinguished man. 

6. Witnesses to confirm the dictum, i.e., quotations from authorities 

who had said the same or a similar thing. 

7. Conclusion, which often took the form of an oratorical exhorta- 

tion. 

So guided, and with models of similar exercises before him, often 
written by the master, the boy could scarcely fail to produce a fairly 
good essay or declamation, especially as the learning by heart of the 
poets had stored his mind with words and felicitous expressions." 
Laurie, op. cit., 370-1. 



IX 

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN QUINTILIAN AND CICERO 

From the general characteristics and ideals of Roman edu- 
cation that have been discussed in previous chapters it does 
not seem strange that the most prominent writers on Roman 
pedagogy whose works we possess were a consummate orator 
and an equally consummate teacher of orators. They can 
hardly be called theorists, as was the case with the two writers 
on Greek education whom we considered, for the work of one 
of them grows out of actual educational practice, and perhaps 
largely out of his own experience, while that of the other is 
based on existing school programs and on his own work as 
teacher. 

Cicero and Quintilian compared. — We need not dwell on 
Cicero here, for he contributed little, if anything, that was new 
in secondary school polity. He was a lay writer chronicling 
school customs of his day and giving us an attractive auto- 
biography for the period of school life, with some reflections 
suggested by it. In some respects he is all the more interest- 
ing for these reasons. He deserves a distinct place in the his- 
tory of education. But since he has given us practically 
nothing that is not included in the educational scheme of the 
great school man, Quintilian, detailed consideration of his 
suggestions as to education will be omitted, except for a few 
notes in the appendix, and the chapter will be given specifically 
to Quintilian. Cicero is the orator giving a general disquisi- 
tion on the education of an orator. Quintilian is the educator 
describing scientifically, and with a wealth of detail and illus- 
tration, the course and method of training for what Nettleship 
rightly calls the great liberal profession of Rome, — the profes- 
sion of lawyer, senator, statesman combined. We have in 
effect a masterly account of the training of the liberally edu- 
cated and professionally educated man. It must therefore 

129 



i 3 o THE HIGH SCHOOL 

cover the whole range of school life, — elementary education, 
secondary and higher education, and professional education. 

Estimate of Quintilian. — In a way Quintilian summarizes 
ancient education and lays the foundation for modern peda- 
gogy. He is one of the few great master teachers of the world. 
His really wonderful book is the first systematic treatise on 
pedagogy. Through this and his own personal influence as a 
teacher he impressed himself deeply on school life in general 
and especially on the secondary school. So deeply did he 
impress himself on the latter that for many centuries it was 
largely the embodiment of Quintilian's curriculum and method ; 
even to-day it bears unmistakable resemblance to his model. 
Secondary school pedagogy does not go beyond Quintilian, 
except as Quintilian inherited from beyond. The rest were 
forgotten; his impress alone was acknowledged. 

His qualifications for writing on education. — Quintilian's 
success as a writer on education is largely, if not wholly, due 
to the fact that he was a practical school man. That he had 
gained practical experience in the Forum, had been a teacher 
for many years in Rome and perhaps also in Spain, and had 
been master of the first state school or college at Rome placed 
him in the best possible position to write, not only intelligently, 
but also scientifically, on the subject in question. 

Altogether Quintilian is more worthy of close study in this 
connection that any writer on pedagogy in the history of the 
secondary school, — at least down to the nineteenth century. 
However, only a general discussion of his main contributions 
to secondary education will be in place here. An appendix 
will supply a full description, with citations, for those who 
wish to see more in detail what this great master of his art has 
given us. 

Characteristic features of his secondary school. His aim. 
— The great end of his training was the Roman ideal that 
has already been sufficiently emphasized, the development of 
the complete orator : 

" A man, who, being possessed of the highest natural genius, 
stores his mind thoroughly with the most valuable kinds of 
knowledge; a man sent by the gods to do honor to the world and 
such as no preceding age has known, a man in every way eminent 



QUINTILIAN'S SECONDARY SCHOOL 131 

and excellent, a thinker of the best thoughts and a speaker of the 
best language." x 

" No man," he says, " will ever be thoroughly accomplished in 
eloquence who has not gained a deep insight into the impulses of 
human nature and formed his moral character on the precepts of 
others and on his own reflection." ..." I should desire the 
orator whom I am trying to form to be a kind of Roman wise man 
who may prove himself a true statesman, not by discussions in re- 
tirement, but by personal experience and exertions in public 
life." 1 

Practical efficiency. — Such is the ideal that his fine edu- 
cational imagination pictures to him. In his scheme of educa- 
tion, however, he takes the ordinary material of the school and 
sets himself the task of training to the highest standard pos- 
sible. His aim is to make an effective man of high character, 
able to maintain an honorable place in Roman life. It is thus 
an intensely practical one that should appeal to present day 
educators whose main thought is practical efficiency. 

Curriculum. Composition the central subject. — In his 
curriculum we should find nothing striking to distinguish it 
from what has already been given. In fact Quintilian plays 
an important part in the chapter that summarizes Roman edu- 
cation for the later historical period, though largely without 
name. It is in detail and in spirit that we find his real contri- 
butions. These appear especially and typically in his treat- 
ment of composition. Writing was the great medium and 
means of training. Quintilian cannot say too much for it. 2 
It is his main dependence in the training of an orator. He 
therefore lays out a detailed and thorough course in it, which 
he describes with great fulness, showing how to begin and 
the various steps to be taken to give a complete training. Side 
by side with this, causa exemplorum, goes an equally compre- 
hensive and appreciative study of literature, ancient and mod- 
ern, Greek and Latin, that of itself would give a liberal educa- 
tion. His remarks as to values and purposes here are both 
interesting and helpful in understanding his ideal. Literature 

1 See Quintilian, XII, 1, 2. Appendix 2, page 139. 

2 " In writing are the roots, in writing are the foundations of elo- 
quence. By writing resources are stored up, as it were in a sacred 
repository whence they may be drawn forth for sudden emergencies, 
or as circumstances require," X, 3:3. See Appendix for details. 



i 3 2 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

is his most important study for training in composition and 
language. With it, and chiefly correlated with it, goes a care- 
ful study of arithmetic and geometry, for training and infor- 
mation rather than for practical value; of astronomy and 
history, as making for general intelligence and affording a key 
to the interpretation of allusions; of rhetoric and music, as 
giving form to thought and style to language; and of elocution 
and physical training, which add grace to voice and person. 
His scheme was therefore well-rounded, and its parts were 
carefully related. 

Method. — But he contributes more to pedagogy in his 
treatment of method than otherwise. His books are rich in 
minute details as to conducting class work. He explains the 
manner and spirit in which composition should be guided and 
corrected; the various kinds of exercises in literature for meet- 
ing the ends of discipline and information, and especially for 
supplying models, ethical, literary, grammatical, and rhetorical ; 
the kind of training in reading that is adapted to pupils of this 
age; the line of teaching that must be applied to rhetoric to 
make it a live subject; the method for training pupils in voice, 
carriage and manner in declamation; and the principles that 
underlie sound memory training. Much of this is refreshing 
reading even now, especially his remarks on composition, read- 
ing, rhetoric, and memory training. He can hold his own 
with the best modern pedagogical writers on such topics. In 
rhetoric he could give the average teacher points that would 
put him far in advance of his present method of teaching. 3 

Feeling for the boy. Child psychology. — But Quintilian 
had real feeling not merely for his subject, dear as that was 
to him, but also for the boy. There was to be no cold dealing 
out of rules and manipulation of practice and drill, as was 
often, probably generally, the case. He knew his pupils so 
thoroughly that his knowledge became intuition, and he inter- 
wove in his scheme many a human element and fine feeling for 
the child. His estimate of teachers from this point of view 
was correspondingly keen and appreciative. Quintilian thus 
had two schemes of * concentration " in his educational plan, 
one in which everything was grouped around his " core," 

3 For details of method see Appendix. 



QUINTILIAN'S SECONDARY SCHOOL 133 

linguistics, and the other in which the boy was the center, and 
culture and training material were related to him. Through- 
out the discussion there is a play back and forth between these 
two ideas. 

Training, not nature. — Quintilian had a genuine enthu- 
siasm for his subject. He treats it broadly and thoroughly, as 
a means to a great end that calls for the best from teacher, 
pupil, and curriculum. No catch-penny methods or superficial 
short-cuts, such as some sophists used, received any counten- 
ance from him. He had also a genuine faith in the power of 
training. Not nature, but training was, in his opinion, the 
chief factor in the finished product. At the opening of his 
book he says: 

" You will find the greater number of men both ready in per- 
ceiving and quick in learning, since such quickness is natural 
to man. . . . But dull and unteachable persons are no more pro- 
duced in the course of nature than are persons marked by mon- 
strosity and deformity; such are certainly but few. It will be 
a proof of this assertion that among boys good promise is shown 
in far the greater number; and if it passes off in progress of 
time, it is manifest that it was not natural ability, but care that 
was wanting, — " 4 

which reminds us that in all ages backwardness in school is 
generally due to bad teaching at some stage of the child's 
school life, or to bad habits and bad environment. The high 
aims of education were never more strikingly and simply stated 
than by Quintilian. 

Characteristic features of his school. — So much for a gen- 
eral statement of Quintilian's contributions to education. To 
formulate a little more specifically we may give the following 
tabulation of the characteristic features of his school. This 
will place them before us a little more pointedly and will give 
a clearer idea of Quintilian's genius in pedagogy. 

A. His curriculum: — Linguistic work, with great stress 
upon grammar, composition, declamation, and literature, is 
predominant, — in fact practically comprises the secondary 
course. All else is ancillary and, for the most part, corre- 
lated. 

4 Quintilian, op. cit., I, 1 : 2. 



i 3 4 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

B. His methods — 

1. The individual is to be studied. Quintilian makes the 
psychology of his pupil one of his guides in method, whether 
for the sake of the boy or for the sake of his subject. 

2. Talent 5 lies at the foundation, but precocity is decried. 

3. Memory is the key to education. Through it the pupil 
stores a vast amount of information, forms, and models, of all 
kinds, to weave into his linguistic life. " The chief symptom 
of ability in children is memory." 6 

4. Habit, as a factor and determinant in education and its 
subject matter, is emphasized. Memory is the storehouse, 
habit is the safety-valve in education. 

5. Imitation is the beginning and center of intellectual life. 
Hence the imperative need of a careful choice of teachers and 
of subject matter in teaching. 7 

6. Stress is laid on the principle of interest as determining 
the character of at least the early exercises. 

7. Provision is made for concrete, objective teaching, broad 
in scope, splendid in conception. 

8. But, after all, close application and persistent work 
come to the forefront as the real keys to success, especially in 
the two directions to be noted in the following sections. 

9. He insists on extensive and intensive reading of 
literature for general culture, but more particularly for moral 
training, and as a means of developing linguistic power. The 
latter purpose is accomplished characteristically through study, 
imitation, practice, and original work, the first three supplying 
a foundation and stimulus for the last. 

10. Great emphasis is placed upon practice, but he has 
regard also for rules. His is a disciplinary course of the most 
refined and scientific sort, leading up to refined and effective 
habit. But it is not the formal discipline, sometimes found, 
that gives a culture forced from without, but rather one that 
develops personality from within, by which a balance is set up 
between the external and the internal. How far he is removed 

5 But talent only as supported by industry. Talent is less powerful 
than training. 

6 Do., I, 3 : 1. 

7 Do.; also II, 2: iff; X, 2:1. 



QUINTILIAN'S SECONDARY SCHOOL 135 

from the former is indicated by various passages showing his 
care for developing personality and individuality. 

11. His scheme is therefore marked by careful insistence 
upon the development of individual judgment and creative 
power, and it includes careful directions for this purpose. 

12. He advocates a discipline that draws, rather than 
repels, stimulates rather than depresses or represses, — one that 
harmonizes pupil and teacher. 

It thus appears that Quintilian emphasizes, particularly, 
memory work, imitation, practice, drill, and individual work. 
On these lines he builds up an elaborate system minutely out- 
lined and splendidly described and illustrated. Education with 
him has become not only a science, but an art. His thought is 
based not only on empirical knowledge, but on principles drawn 
from his own experience and from the work of previous educa- 
tors, and on the philosophic insight of the trained mind. The 
tone that comes from the practical school man gives it added 
charm. His book is so full of substance that it is no easy 
matter to abbreviate and summarize ; for Quintilian is evidently 
" one of the moderns." He gives us, in germ at least, practi- 
cally all that modern pedagogy has evolved. 

Final influence. — But, taking his Institutes as a whole, his 
plan of teaching clearly shows a uniformity of formal train- 
ing. Even his elaborate program of literary study has more 
or less of the formal in it. Those interesting touches that 
reveal an appreciation of child nature and of educational devel- 
opment, however, relieve and temper the formality. If it 
seems surprising that, with these germinal truths that appear 
frequently, the real nature of education and the educational 
process was not realized earlier, we must remember that ele- 
ments of the larger educational life were not brought together, 
so as to make a lively center of influence for those who were 
to follow. 8 Thus, though the Quintilian school was as 
advanced for its time and as well adapted to its time as can 
be claimed for any school in history, some of its more sig- 

8 Even if this part of Quintilian' s pedagogy had stood out most 
prominently, the political and social conditions, as well as the intellectual 
bent, of the following years were not favorable to progressive pedagogy. 
The Grammer Schools copied rather than initiated. But a force was 
at work that would eventually produce a marvelous reform. 



136 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

nificant principles were lost sight of. They must wait for 
a more scientific age to bring a higher unity of educational 
aims and plans. 

Formal discipline. — Whatever may have been true of 
Quintilian, his followers took the formal system and made it 
uniform through the whole period of education, — developed 
and intensified it so that it almost took on the nature of divin- 
ity. Quintilian but dimly, if at all, realized education as a 
subjective process; still less did his followers seem to realize 
it. Following a path he made so clear they made education a 
form pure and simple, and this for nearly two thousand years. 9 

Formal training has generally been thought to give some- 
thing called mental discipline, though the claim may be 
doubted. It surely did not get at the source of power. After 
a time came reform in elementary education, and reform has 
spread to some extent beyond this limit. A part of education 
has been remodeled according to sound educational science, 
while a part is still more or less in the shackles planned by 
Quintilian and forged by his successors. 

Ancient and modern oratory. — The Romans made the 
orator the supreme specialist, the only one who really made 
himself tell on the world. We have changed matters. The 
qualities of the orator are being added to real specialists and 
investigators in all lines, who must not merely make them- 
selves felt by what they discover and know, but must win a 
hearing by ability to express and to move men in their special 
fields. On the other hand the orator does not have the same 
importance, nor hold the same relative position, as that claimed 
by the orators of Cicero and Quintilian. In one sense the 
orator's art has been enlarged; in another sense it has been 
dissipated ; or rather it has been divided and its parts scattered 
over the world of thought and action, each part having grown 
into something greater than the original whole. 

Post-Quintilian development. — We have now before us 
the first fully developed secondary school of which we have 

9 Now and then appeared a man or school of a different temper. 
Bernard, Da Feltre, Montaigne, Ascham, Comenius, Milton broke away 
in a degree from this formal education, but secondary education as a 
rule remained fast. 



QUINTILIAN'S SECONDARY SCHOOL 137 

detailed record. Though, as we have seen, there were other 
well-developed secondary schools in earlier times, no complete 
account has come down to us, — little more in fact than some 
more or less general statements. Then, too, they lacked that 
purposeful practical environment that gave peculiar force and 
momentum to the Roman school, and they belonged to a people 
who were far from being practical organizers. 

Public secondary education. — It remained to make the 
secondary school public. The movement began at an early 
date, — - about Quintilian's time, 10 when Grammar Schools were 
already widely scattered. At that time some schools were sup- 
ported by the state, some by municipalities, some by private 
funds, while the wandering teacher and private tutor still plied 
their professions. 11 By 425 A. D. an edict made the state sole 
authority and forbade the opening of schools by unauthorized 
persons. 12 We are not however to suppose that all schools 
were state schools in a literal sense, simply that all were under 
general state supervision, some in one status, some in another. 

Decline of the secondary school. — But the growth of im- 
perialism took away some of the intense motives that ruled in 
earlier education. 13 Rhetoric was thrown back on itself; it 
became an end rather than a means. Form became the promi- 
nent feature. The Roman Grammar School, like many other 
civic and social achievements, was declining. A weak institu- 
tion would have suffered permanent decline. Not so this one. 
It suffered eclipse, but it still lived. 

The source of the modern secondary school. — A real sec- 
ondary school tradition had thus been started. Through strong 
organization and powerful influences it eventually became so 
firmly fixed that the secondary school described in this and 
the preceding chapter became a dominating model for cen- 
turies and a permanent influence. From it modern sec- 
ondary school influences take their rise. The line of descent 

10 Suetonius, Vesp., XVIII (Monroe, op. cit., 400). 

11 Pliny, Epist, III, 3; IV, 13 (quoted by Laurie); Laurie, op. cit., 
420 ff. See Monroe, op. cit., 377 ft. 

12 We find some reference to jobbery in spending public money. Pol- 
itics entered the schools early. 

13 Cicero, Brutus, 96-7; Dill, Roman Soc. in the Last Cent, of the 
West. Emp. 



138 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

of the secondary school passes directly to Rome. It is prob- 
able that the organization of the secondary school there, — the 
enterprising and vigorous handling of the curriculum, and the 
prosecution of method, — had more to do with defining sec- 
ondary education for many centuries than any other school 
agency whatever, and for obvious reasons. The secondary 
school plan, as finally developed and organized there during 
this period, ruled the West exclusively down to the time when 
it had lost its practical nature and Hecker, Francke and their 
followers began to lead a movement for a new practical cur- 
riculum. It continued as the predominating influence long 
afterwards. This does not mean that Rome originated all, or 
even many, details, but she took up the tradition, put her stamp 
upon it, and held it so long and impressed it so vividly that her 
influence was paramount. Roman pedagogy at its best, 
Quintilian's pedagogy, found lodgment in many of the great 
teachers who followed him. The Grammar Schools them- 
selves, many of them, did not die; they were transformed. 
Though lost to sight, perhaps, they influenced the structures 
which were built over or into them. Some of the Cathedral 
Schools of later times could have disclosed the Roman model to 
one who cared to look within the shell. More than this, they 
could have shown a continuous tradition from Roman times. 
The Roman Grammar School was the strongest moulding 
force the secondary school had, in form, curriculum, and 
method, down to the middle of the nineteenth century. 

APPENDIX I 

A quotation from Nettleship 14 will serve as an introduction to an 
outline of Quintilian's Institutes : — 

A Roman Ideal. — " To be a great statesman at Rome it was neces- 
sary, besides being a soldier, to be an orator; a master not only of 
the cultivated style which would appeal to the forty or fifty educated 
senators and equites who might meet to try a case in a court of law, 
but of the broader effects which alone could make an impression upon 
the great contiones. Oratory (not rhetoric) bade fair, in the hands of 
a comprehensive genius like Cicero, to absorb the whole field of knowl- 
edge and education. To Cicero, if we may trust him in the De Oratore, 
knowledge is the necessary condition of eloquence, but knowledge 
must be subservient to eloquence. One can hardly complain of him 

14 Lectures and Essays, Second Series, by H. Nettleship, p. 6j. 



QUINTILIAN'S SECONDARY SCHOOL 139 

for adopting a point of view which, after all, was the prevalent one 
with the mass of educated men in classical antiquity. For, with them, 
literature^was subordinate to life. The idea of investigation, of pain- 
ful study, undertaken merely for the sake of ascertaining the truth in 
regions of fact such as history or natural science, was comparatively 
unfamiliar to the literary aristocracies who ruled the ancient Graeco- 
Roman world." 

APPENDIX II 

AN OUTLINE OF QUINTILIAN'S COURSE OF TRAINING FOR 
THE ORATOR, OR THE EDUCATED MAN OF ROME 

Prefatory Note : The aim in giving so full an outline is to provide a 
convenient and authoritative resume of Quintilian's great work and thus 
make his rather formidable treatise, twelve books in length, more 
accessible to students of pedagogy. 

The whole outline deals with the secondary school, but the latter 
part would seem to apply to what corresponds to the upper forms of 
the typical English secondary schools of fifty years ago, 15 the last 
years of whose curriculum we are inclined to compare with early col- 
lege work. 

The end in view.— In stating his aim we find Quintilian's statements 
practically identical with Cicero's, for the most part. The end in 
view is the perfect orator, "who cannot exist unless he is a good 
man." 16 

Qualifications of the Orator. — " Let the orator therefore be such a 
man as may be called truly wise, not blameless in morals only, for that 
in my opinion, though some disagree with me, is not enough, but ac- 
complished also in science and in every qualification in speaking : a char- 
acter such as perhaps no man ever was." 17 

Quintilian in another passage lays stress on having ideals embraced 
in the heart and thinking in conformity with them, and thus having 
a very practical hold on them. 18 

2. Four periods in his scheme. — As to the grading and curriculum, 
Quintilian divides his course of training into four parts, — 1, ante-school 
training ; 2, elementary education ; 3, secondary education ; 4, higher or 
professional education. In making these divisions it is to be noted 
that Quintilian does not distinguish by ages. At the very outset he 
shows that he has no sympathy with those who would make artificial 
divisions between parts of school life, for he combats the idea that 
seven should be the age for beginning school work. He says there is 

15 Eton, Harrow, Rugby, and others of that famous group of " Great 
Public Schools." 

16 Preface to his Institutes, 9. 

17 Do., 18. 

18 For other strong statements of Quintilian as to ideals see Chapter 
IX, pp. 130-31. 



i 4 o THE HIGH SCHOOL 

no such beginning, that school life represents a continuity ; and again he 
says that the time for sending to the higher school is when the pupil 
is qualified; he may enter even before finishing the lower secondary 
school. 

As to the extent of education in the community, Quintilian says 
nothing. He does not mention the education of girls, if we except the 
fact that he emphasizes educated parents. But this is natural from the 
nature of the case. He is writing of the education of the orator and 
his end colors his whole scheme, but we may easily apply the most 
essential features of his earlier course to girls, who were readily ac- 
corded education at Rome. 

Curriculum for each period. — Coming to details of the curriculum, 
then, we first take up the study and training of the 

Ante-school period which is just as systematically provided for as 
any, through the careful selection of attendants. The chief lines of 
training here are language (Greek and Latin), writing, ethics, and 
general information. Greek, he says, should come before Latin, be- 
cause it is the original of the Latin, and because the boy will learn 
Latin any way. But Latin is to follow apace, so that the exclusive 
practice of either may not " impede the other." 19 

The elementary school period 20 seems to continue the work already 
laid out. Quintilian's efforts are directed especially to two points: i, 
a discussion of the question of public and private schools, in which 
he emphatically decides for the public school with a proper number 
of pupils, as best for both pupil and teacher; 2, a consideration of 
management and instruction. 21 This school takes the boy till he is 
about twelve. 

The secondary school, — junior section. The Grammar School. 22 We 
may fairly conclude that this school took the boy about the beginning 
of his twelfth year and kept him till about the beginning of his six- 
teenth year, though Quintilian has no regard for years ; he measures by 
qualifications. In quality and scope the work seems to correspond 
fairly well with that of the last grammar school years and the 
first high school years with us, if we take into account the difference 
in the educational development of the two epochs. 

The central subject is grammar, 23 in the ancient sense. We do not 

19 Quintilian, op. cit., I, 1 : 12-14. 

20 Quintilian' s arguments here are interesting and thorough. See 

1,2. 

21 See later pages under method. 

22 A typical secondary school of the European type. Compare the 
English Grammar Schools of to-day, whose curricula are more ex- 
tended than those of our High Schools, providing for both younger 
and older pupils. 

23 The old name for grammar was literatura, showing that the sub- 
ject included something besides the abstract technique of language. 
The grammar pupil, as the most vital part of his subject, took language 
in the concrete as well, i.e., literature. 



QUINTILIAN'S SECONDARY SCHOOL 141 

need to come down to modern times to get a good idea of concen- 
tration, for the organization of Quintilian's curriculum, with grammar 
as the core, gives us an excellent example, as far as subjects of study 
are concerned. Grammar here includes first, the technicalities we 
usually associate with the subject, — sounds, divisions, relations, limita- 
tions, modifications, derivatives, and historical changes of letters; sec- 
ond, the inflexional and formative elements in a language, i.e., all 
the technicalities of words, making a most abstract and abstruse study; 
third, all facts and principles associated with the art of " speaking and 
writing correctly," and thus syntax and composition. But it is 
much larger than all this. As a basis for composition it carries with 
it literary study, or, as Quintilian calls it, the " illustration of the 
poets." This is itself a very broad study, for it gives a knowledge of 
words and matter, structure and style, and involves knowledge of 
philology, music (meter and rhythm), and history, 2 * in order to ex- 
plain allusions or otherwise elucidate the text. Such an intensive study 
under the direction of the master of grammar constantly stimulates 
thought along various lines. "Grammar" in Rome even extended 
its limits beyond this and assumed some functions connected with the 
theory and practice of eloquence. 25 Legitimately this phase of gram- 
mar must be regarded as belonging to a separate subject, the second 
fundamental of the secondary curriculum, elementary rhetoric (except 
in so far as it comes in incidentally in connection with the study of 
literature just referred to). Rhetoric and grammar are naturally ac- 
companied or supplemented by some elementary work in elocution, 
including articulation, pronunciation, and expression; for after learn- 
ing to " distinguish words and meanings," the boy must learn " to ex- 
press meaning." In connection with this literary and linguistic study 
comes a carefully chosen course of reading, both Greek and Latin, in 
prose and poetry, to furnish models. This course is to be selected with 
special reference to ethical values at first, till morals are formed. 
Quintilian believes that music 26 is closely related to oratory, that 
it is calculated to cultivate the voice and give form for language and 
gesture for the body. So he naturally makes it a prominent part 
of his curriculum. Wholesome, manly music is his choice, " those strains 
in which the praises of heroes were sung and which heroes themselves 
sang ; not the sounds of psalteries and languishing lutes, but the knowl- 
edge of the principles of the art that is of the highest efficacy in excit- 
ing and allaying the passions." Geometry is chosen as another essential 
study in his school, both for its subject matter and for its training 
value, for he believes that it excites the thinking powers, sharpens 
the intellect, quickens perception, affords training in logic, and at the 
same time gives useful knowledge that delivers one from embarrassing 
errors. It is interesting to note that under geometry Quintilian in- 
cludes "numbers" and astronomy. 27 

24 I, 8. 26 I, I0< 

25 II, I. 27 I, 10. 



142 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

But Quintilian lays most stress, as we shall find, on writing (com- 
position), 28 as a means of forming his ideal. His elementary course 
includes grammatical drill, reproduction, paraphrasing, and narrative 
work. 

Finally comes some elementary training in delivery 29 (elocution), 
involving rules for pronunciation, expression, grace and propriety of 
motion, but not theatrical effects. It thus brings in physical instruc- 
tion in the palaestra for graceful carriage, and some training under 
an actor for elocutionary purposes. 

Secondary School, — second period. The School of Rhetoric. 50 The 
youth entered this higher school sometime about the beginning of his 
fifteenth or sixteenth year. This and the quality and content of the 
curriculum offered seem to show that we have here at least two years 
corresponding to the later part of our high school course of training. 
As already said Quintilian does not care for fixed limits of age. He 
complains that pupils go to the School of Rhetoric too late, the 
grammar masters having usurped some of the functions of the teachers 
of rhetoric, so that old bounds between the two schools have been 
removed, or at least disturbed. Thus teachers of the higher courses 
now confine themselves only to a part of their legitimate work, and 
pupils are kept in the Grammar School too long. He would have each 
school keep its proper functions. 31 

The School of Rhetoric provides advanced training in composition 
and delivery to supply a broad and practical foundation for the public 
activities of the orator. It provides also special memory training which 
Quintilian emphasizes particularly in his school plans. Quintilian lays 
out a very inclusive course in composition, in which he sets the 
roots of eloquence. 32 Beginning with simple narration he advances 
to somewhat technical forms of composition that have to do with the 
final aims of the orator. He cordially indorses Cicero's thought as to 
the relation of writing to oratory: — 

" In writing are the roots, in writing are the foundation of eloquence; 
by writing resources are stored up, as it were, in a secret repository, 
whence they may be drawn forth for sudden emergencies or as cir- 

28 I, 9- 

29 I, ii. 

30 See Book II and following books, especially X. 

With Quintilian's informal grading it is difficult to draw the lines 
in secondary education. The previous period (Grammar-school period) 
would seem in part to include training corresponding to that of the 
lower " forms " of the English Public School. For the rest it was 
secondary. The Rhetorical School again should not be regarded in 
all its parts as beyond the secondary mark. It evidently included 
both secondary and higher training. 

31 It is interesting to find one school usurping the functions of 
another. It was as vicious then as ever to imagine that higher grade 
work was higher work and carried more distinction with it. 

3*11,4. Conf. X, 5. 



QUINTILIAN'S SECONDARY SCHOOL 143 

cumstances require. Let us above all things get strength, which may 
suffice for the labor of our contests and may not be exhausted by us." 33 

In writing Quintilian emphasizes pure Latin ; care of words and 
utmost care of matter; the significance, form, and measure of words; 
adaptation of words; expression, in which, he says, lie the faults and 
excellencies of oratory; and arrangement, in regard to which he aptly 
suggests that the order of words, the typical divisions of the oration, 
and the effective marshalling of all depend upon the situation. 34 Nat- 
urally in connection with this work in composition, as in his Gram- 
mar School program, he has a wide course in reading, 35 including both 
Greek and Roman writers, — poets, historians, philosophers, orators. 
Here he gives characterizations of each writer in his list and explains 
the limitations in the orator's use of poetry and history. For train- 
ing in delivery 36 he provides a graduated course, — simple declama- 
tion, fully prepared beforehand and growing in difficulty, half ex- 
tempore speaking, i.e., speaking after premeditation, and finally ex- 
tempore speaking. In this connection he suggests exhaustive training 
as to voice and gesture, in which he again includes work with the actor 
and in gymnasium or palaestra. This is the climax; it represents the 
completion of the orator's development. In this and in all the training 
of the Rhetor School he significantly urges vigorous preparation for 
what is needed in the Forum, the center of interest for every active 
Roman. As to memory training 37 Quintilian is interesting, suggestive 
and enthusiastic. It is a favorite topic with him. But he does not 
favor an artificial system of mnemonics like that of Simonides. He 
suggests rather a simple, common sense plan in which he lays stress 
on order, arrangement, and method (elsewhere defined). 

Now we may justly assume that the more elementary parts of this 
curriculum were distinctly secondary, occupying the secondary years 
that have been referred to as belonging to the rhetorical school, because 
it took adolescents that had barely entered their sixteenth year. 38 The 
more intensive and technical work of the different courses that have 
been outlined belonged to what we may call higher education, and to 
them were added psychology, or the part of it that has to do with the 
emotions, 39 philosophy,* a three-fold subject, including "natural phi- 
losophy," ethics, and dialectics, all of which Quintilian believed useful 
and even necessary for the end in view, and civil law.* 1 

33 X, 3:1-3. 

3 *II, 13; VII, 1; VIII, Introd., 17-32; X, 1:5-15. 

35 X, 1 ; see XII, 2 : 29. 

36 XI, 3. 

37 See XI, 2, et al. 

38 See above, p. 142. The typical European secondary school differed 
and differs very materially, not to say radically, from the American 
High School in age-groupings. 

39 VI; XII, 2. 
4° XII, 2. 

41 XII, 3. 



144 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Such is the outline of the different schools which Quintilian includes 
in his scheme of education. We come now to some points as to method. 

Principles and methods. — Where Cicero is weak Quintilian is nat- 
urally strong. In method his books are noticeably rich and afford scope 
for an interesting and suggestive study. For clearness it is well to 
take up the four periods separately, making four groups of suggestions 
as they occur in the several sections of the work dealing with the 
different parts of school life. It will be interesting to see how, when, 
and how often Quintilian makes his various pedagogical observations. 
Later the matter can be condensed into a general outline that will give 
his main principles. If some of the statements appear not to bear 
strictly on method, they are at least suggestive in that direction. 

I. The ante-school period. — Principles and method. 

1. Memory : — " The chief symptom of ability in children is memory." 
— " The elements of learning depend on memory alone, which not only 
exists in children, but is at that time of life even most tenacious." 
" It is almost the only faculty, in early years, that can be improved by 
the aid of teachers." 42 

Imitation, in Quintilian's judgment, is the foundation of method. 
Memory is the chief stay of method, — a growing means of carrying it 
out. He naturally has something worth reading as to the cultivation of 
this power. Here is a brief summary of his suggestions : — 

(a) The fundamental condition of good memory power is good 
health. 43, (b) The second condition is good training. 

Memory may be trained by learning a piece by parts ; by learning 
from the same tablets on which one writes ; by learning aloud for the 
double stimulus of speaking and hearing; by learning from another's 
reading, with frequent tests to avoid slips ; by " division and arrange- 
ment." He assigns a minimum value of systems of mnemonics and a 
good deal of value, for certain purposes, to more or less natural as- 
sociations with signs and symbols. 43 The " only and great art of 
memory ... is exercise and labor." By beginning in childhood with 
a small but interesting memory task, increasing it a little each day, and 
keeping up the exercise persistently through different periods of life 
in serious tasks, the orator may accomplish almost " inconceivable 
results." 44 

2. The child is imitative. Habits formed early are permanent. " The 
next symptom (of ability) is imitation." 45 ... "A great portion of art 
consists in imitation." 45 Everywhere this is his basal principle in 
method. It will be found giving character and direction to the work 
of each period in his system. Quintilian follows his principle out logi- 

42 I, i : 19, 36; 3:1. 

43 XI, 2:35. 

44 XI, 2:27ff., 41. 

45 I, 3 : 1 ; X, 2 : 1. What is said in the following paragraphs on this 
topic comes from statements found in different parts of the Institutes. 
There will be specific additions as the different periods are taken up. 



QUINTILIAN'S SECONDARY SCHOOL 145 

cally; for he insists upon great care in choosing those who are to 
take charge of the child, — attendants, nurses, slaves, paedagogi, for 
whom good language, good morals, and some knowledge are prime es- 
sentials. Parents are to have as much learning as possible. 46 All the 
subject matter of the boy's course is to be selected wisely to furnish 
suitable models for developing vocabulary, expression, style in speak- 
ing and writing, and substantial moral qualities. 47 The principle would 
also prescribe equal care in selecting the living model whom, accord- 
ing to the old Roman custom, the boy was to choose and follow for the 
purpose of perfecting himself in the art of oratory. 48 

Quintilian, however, does not have in mind any narrow or formal 
principle. Models are not to be merely copied, but studied with a 
view to getting at their excellencies and defects and using them as a 
basis for modifying, adding, and improving, and thus for developing 
independent power. Judgment and discretion are to be superior to 
all rules and models, and Quintilian's methods are calculated to develop 
these qualities. 49 While therefore the principle provides for training 
the boy in the best the world has produced and thus tends to per- 
petuate modes and styles in oratory, it provides also for judgment 
and originality as modifying factors. 

" If it is not allowable to add, , . . how can we ever hope to see the 
complete orator? . . . Even those who do not aim at the highest excel- 
lence should rather try to excel than merely follow their predecessors." 
Otherwise, he points out, one will fall behind his ideal ..." He who 
shall add to these borrowed qualities excellencies of his own, so as to 
supply what is deficient in his models and to retrench what is redundant, 
will be the complete orator whom we desire to see." 50 

It is however imitation of the simple sort, child imitation, that he 
applies in the early school. Later schools built up judgment and 
originality. 

3. Quintilian has high regard for talent and natural aptitudes. But 
he has a higher regard for the magic power of training. 51 

4. Those' of tender years are not to be urged severely, and the 
principle of amusement in instruction and that of emulation and re- 
wards are to be used. Having provided formal instruction for these 
early years, he must make special provisions lest it miscarry. 52 

"It will be necessary above all things to take care lest the child 
should conceive a dislike to the application which he cannot yet love, 
and continue to dread the bitterness which he has once tasted, even 
beyond the years of infancy." 

46 I, 1. 

47 I, 8; II, 5; X, 1,2, 5; XII, 4. 

48 X, s : 19, 20. 
4 9 II, 13 ; X, 2. 
so X, 2 : 9, 28. 

si I, 3:1; II, 4 :9ff.;8: 5 . 

62 I ? 1 ; 20, 



146 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

5. Quintilian gives an important place to the physical. It is the 
highway to success and successful method. 

" It is common alike to learning by heart and to composition that good 
health, excellent digestion, and a mind free from other subjects of care 
contribute greatly to success in them." 53 

And, speaking of the work of older students particularly, he says, 

" But in every kind of study, and especially in such nocturnal appli- 
cation, good health and that which is the prime means of securing it, 
regularity of life, are necessary, since we devote the time appointed 
us by nature for sleep and the recruiting of our strength to the most 
intense labor; but on this labor we must not bestow more^ than what 
is too much for sleep and what will not leave too little for it." 

6. Coming to the matter of the child's school work, we find that 
Quintilian would teach reading 54 by the time-honored synthetic method, 
though he makes some improvement on it. The common practice was to 
learn the names and order of letters before their shapes. He advocates 
learning appearances and names first. Imitation and tracing are the 
means, and children may use ivory letters in play. Syllables follow, 
and they are to be learned by heart, even the most difficult. "There 
is no short way," he says. 55 Then comes the formation of words from 
syllables, and phrases from words, and so on to reading. Training in 
pronunciation is to include practice in hard combinations of sounds that 
remind us of the old " Peter Piper." Quintilian is very careful as to 
progress in reading. He urges teachers to avoid haste, so as to pre- 
vent interruption, hesitancy and distrust. A good reader must be able 
to attend to the words at hand and look ahead at the same time. 
This must become a habit and the habit requires slow and sure work. 56 

In writing, the tracing method is to be followed. Quintilian lays 
stress on rapid writing. So the subject is to receive a different kind of 
attention from that which had been customary in Rome. 

" For, as writing itself is the principal thing in our studies, and that 
by which alone sure proficiency, resting on the deepest roots, is se- 
cured, a too slow way of writing retards thought, a rude and confused 
hand cannot be read." 5r 

But correlation relieves some of the abstractness in his system, for 
rich subject matter is to be chosen for writing and memory work 
and also for reading, giving good words and thoughts and useful knowl- 
edge. 

53 XI, 2:35; X, 3:26. 

54 I, 1 : 24 ff. 

We must remind ourselves here that Greek comes before Latin in 
the curriculum, though it precedes only by a little. 

55 There is, however, an easier and more pedagogical way. 

56 I, 1 : 33. 

57 I, 1 : 28. 



QUINTILIAN'S SECONDARY SCHOOL 147 

II. The elementary school period. — Principles and method. 

1. The public school is preferred for pedagogical reasons; it makes, 
he believes, better pupils and better teachers. 58 This is surely an ele- 
ment of method; for the whole environment is to be considered. 

2. Here again great care is to be exercised in choosing teachers. 
As to the attitude of teachers, instruction is to be guided by affection 
more than by duty. 59 The management of the school is to be definite, 
systematic, and impressive, with strong moral results, 60 but Quintilian 
would have no corporal punishment. Strong and sane arguments against 
it are given in one of his finest passages. 61 

3. The teacher must study the pupil, to learn his capacities and 
disposition. This evidently gives the basis for another fundamental 
and far-reaching principle that is implied or expressed in various 
passages, — that amount and quality of work, the qualities of the 
teacher, and his method of teaching should be adapted to the capacity, 
development, and disposition of the pupil, as well as to the general 
qualities of boyhood. 62 

4. Relaxation is necessary. Quintilian cordially advocates it within 
due bounds. 61 In this connection he says significantly : " In their 
plays also their moral dispositions show themselves more plainly." 63 

These are general principles of method. As to special method, since 
the subjects of the ante-school period still continue and the two 
periods really make one, we may assume that the methods in the 
special subjects were similar to those before described. 

III. The Grammar School period. The secondary school — first 
part. — Principles and method. I. After learning to distinguish words 
and meanings comes learning to express meaning. Here Quintilian 
wishes pieces of worth and of benefit to the reader to be chosen. He 
calls for care as to ethical values, advising that doubtful works be 
postponed till morals are formed. The value of content is thus sug- 
gested, apart from the formal training in the subject. 

" Those writings should be the subjects of lectures for boys which 
best nourish the mind and enlarge the thinking powers; for reading 

58 I, 2. 

59 I, 2 : 15. 

60 This appears elsewhere. 

61 I,3:i4ff- 

That moral training is not weak or superficial and loses nothing from 
the absence of corporal punishment the following passage clearly 
shows : — 

"A child is as early as possible therefore to be admonished that he 
must do nothing too eagerly, nothing dishonestly, nothing without 
self-control; and we must always keep in mind the maxim of Vergil, 
" Adeo in teneris consuescere multum est." I, 3 : 13. 

62 I, 2 : 28 ; 3:6. See also II, 2 : 14 ; 4 : 4 ff. ; 5:1; 6:4; X, 2 : 20 ; and 
especially II, 8. 

63 I, 3:8. 



i 4 8 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

other books that relate merely to erudition advanced life will afford 
sufficient time." 64 

All this shows true pedagogical insight. It is the period for ideals. 
Quintilian, true to principles like these, is very selective in the books 
he recommends. 

2. On the formal side, literature is to be taken up so as to give a 
many-sided study, including interpretation, analysis, grammatical points, 
figures, different significations of words, disposition of parts, adapta- 
tion of literary treatment to the requirements of the subject, and 
allusions. 65 Pronunciation and expression are to receive attention 
in reading, the actor supplying some instruction here. Gesture and 
general carriage are also important, and here he recommends the use 
of the palaestra. 66 

3. Composition work involves the telling of the stories of the poets 
and the fables of ^gsop, the paraphrasing of poetry, narratives from 
poets, sentence work, and drill (by sentences) on inflections. 67 

4. Following his main thought that the orator is trained through 
writing and speaking, Quintilian provides for both methods here, as 
in later courses. The pupil is to " speak pieces," portions of speeches 
that he has committed to memory, " in a loud voice and exactly as he 
will have to plead," all this under a " skilful tutor." 68 It would 
also appear that he is to be trained in oral reading, using both poetry 
and prose from a selected list suitable for young boys. 69 

In addition to these central subjects there are other studies, cor- 
related or supplementary, that with them make an extended curricu- 
lum. They are history, music, and geometry, as we have already seen. 70 
But Quintilian occupies himself in discussing the value of these sub- 
jects rather than in giving details of method, except for showing that 
he would teach history through correlation. As to the whole plan 
for this period however he makes the reassuring statement that there 
is no danger of crowding the curriculum, for the time is long and it 
is easy to take many studies at once, especially as "variety refreshes 
and recruits the mind." Not all the minutiae are to be given, but 
more general knowledge. And yet the curriculum is not a soft one. 
It requires strong, patient work. Quintilian thinks however that it 
will appeal to such as have a genuine interest in " eloquence, the queen 
of the world," not a mere fondness for the returns that their studies 
will bring them. 71 

64 1, 8:8. 

65 I, 8:i3ff. 

66 I, 11. 

67 I, 9. 
« 8 X, 11:14. 
69 1, 8. 

70 1 : 10. Probably geography correlated with literature is also in- 
cluded in his plan. 
71 1, I2:i6ff. 



QUINTILIAN'S SECONDARY SCHOOL 149 

IV. The secondary school — second part. — Principles and 
method. 

1. The very best teachers are to be selected at the outset. He uses 
these significant words as to some of the needed qualifications : — 

" I do not consider him who is unwilling to teach little things in the 
number of preceptors ; but I argue that the ablest teachers can teach 
little things best, if they will; first, because it is likely that he who 
excels others in eloquence has gained the most accurate knowledge of 
the means by which men attain eloquence; secondly, because method, 
which, with the best qualified instructors, is always plainest, is of great 
efficacy in teaching; and lastly, because no man rises to such a height 
in greater things that lesser fade entirely from his view." 72 

Morals are of prime consideration now, and are to be investigated 
with special care in the case of these teachers, not because he does 
not consider that the same examination should be made, " and with the 
utmost care, in regard to other teachers, — but because the very age 
of the pupils makes attention to the matter all the more necessary; 
for boys are consigned to these professors when almost grown up and 
continue their studies under them even after they become men; and 
greater care must in consequence be adopted in regard to them," so 
as to secure each age against the dangers peculiar to it. The master 
must be an example, and he must " regulate also, by severity of disci- 
pline, the conduct of those who come to receive his instructions." He 
is to take the attitude of a parent, and pupils are to look to the teacher 
as to a parent. He must take the proper mean between austerity and 
an affability that is too easy, so as to avoid both dislike and contempt. 73 

"Let him discourse frequently on what is honorable and good, for 
the oftener he admonishes, the more seldom will he have to chastise. 
Let him not be of an angry temper, and yet not a conniver at what 
ought to be corrected. Let him be plain in his mode of teaching and 
patient of labor, but rather diligent in exacting tasks than fond of 
giving them of excessive length. Let him reply readily to those who 
put questions to him, and question of his own accord those who do not. 
In commending the exercises of his pupils let him be neither niggardly 
nor lavish; for the one quality begets dislike of labor, and the other 
self-complacency. In amending what requires correction let him not 
be harsh, and least of all reproachful ; for that very circumstance, that 
some tutors blame as if they hated, deters many young men from their 
proposed course of study. Let him every day say something, and even 
much, which, when pupils hear, they may carry away with them, for 
though he may point out to them in their course of reading plenty of ex- 
amples for their imitation, yet the living voice, as it is called, feeds 
the mind more nutritiously, and especially the voice of the teacher 
whom his pupils, if they are but^ rightly instructed, both love and rev- 
erence. How much more readily we imitate those whom we like 
can scarcely be expressed." 74 

72 II, 3 : 5. 74 II, 2: 5 f, 

73 H, 2 : 2. 



150 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

It would be hard to find a passage of this length packed with more 
good pedagogy. 

Again he says, in a chapter in which he writes delightfully on the 
relations between pupil and teacher, — 

" Neither can eloquence come to its growth unless by mutual agree- 
ment between him who communicates and him who receives." 75 

The teacher is to show his worth and his appreciation of the pupil's 
position also in another way, — by a plain and simple manner of teach- 
ing, so that the learner may not be deterred by complicated presenta- 
tion, and thus lose interest in his study. 76 

These suggestions of Quintilian not only tell us about the teacher, 
but also give us much information about his method. Quintilian cer- 
tainly has a clearly cut idea of the instructor who is to come up to 
his standard. The qualities of the secondary school teacher might 
be summed up in the two words, learning and sympathy. 

2. On the part of the pupil he chooses a modest attitude and dis- 
approves of demonstration, " standing and showing exultation and 
giving applause/' to be " repaid in kind." 77 

3. In the direction of individual work we may note the following 
points, most of them suggested by passages already quoted : — We are 
to understand the nature of the child at work; to suit instruction to 
individuals; to separate ages; to adapt training to different ages; to 
observe differences in ability, ascertain the direction in each case, and 
direct accordingly, 

"because nature attains greater power when seconded by culture; 
and he that is led contrary to nature cannot make due progress in the 
studies for which he is unfit, and makes those talents, for the exercise 
of which he seemed born, weaker by neglecting to cultivate them." 78 

But Quintilian defines his thought on such topics as follows: — 

" To distinguish peculiarities of talent," he says, " is absolutely neces- 
sary; and to make use of particular studies to suit them is what no 
man would discountenance. For one youth will be fitter for the study 
of history than another ; one will be qualified for writing poetry, another 
for the study of the law, and some perhaps fit only to be sent into 
the fields. The teacher of rhetoric will decide in accordance with these 
peculiarities, just as the master of the palaestra will make one of his 
pupils a runner, another a boxer, etc. 

" But he who is destined for public speaking must strive to excel, not 
merely in one accomplishment, but in all the accomplishments that are 
requisite for that art, even though some of them may seem too difficult 
for him when he is learning them. . . . Yet I would not fight against 
nature; for I do not think that any good quality that is innate should 

75 II, 9:3. Another significant passage is found in II, 4:12. 

76 VIII, Introduction, 1-5. 

77 II, 2:9-10, 11. 
"11,8:5; 11,4:9-14. 



QUINTILIAN'S SECONDARY SCHOOL 151 

be detracted, but that whatever is inactive or deficient should be in- 
vigorated or supplied. 79 

It is to be noted that Quintilian is not speaking of general talent 
here, but of interests. We are likely to confuse ideas if we do not 
discriminate in this way. We have already referred to Quintilian's 
creed as to talent. As to the boy's interests, modern pedagogy, as far 
as education is concerned, would lay more stress upon acquired in- 
terests than upon natural interests. One cannot determine his real 
interests, 80 nor detect the direction of his best ability, till he has come 
into contact in a genuine educational way with many things. Education, 
to be truly selective, must select from the multitude, not from the few. 
Hence the multitude must go to school. 

4. So much for general observations. We come now to some peda- 
gogical directions as to a special subject, — composition, that we may 
with advantage remind ourselves is the key-subject in his curriculum. 

(a) The teacher is to begin with that to which the pupil has learned 
something similar under the grammarians (i.e., in the previous school). 81 

(b) His feeling for the boy is shown by his attempt to meet his 
qualities. He has the real boy in mind with his crudeness and his real 
characteristics. 82 Here is a characteristic passage: — 

" That temper in boys will afford me little hope in which mental effort 
is prematurely restrained by judgment. I like what is produced to be 
extremely copious, profuse even beyond the limits of propriety. Years 
will greatly reduce superfluity; judgment will smooth away much of it; 
something will be worn off, as it were, by use, if there be but metal 
from which something may be hewn and polished off, and such metal 
there will be, if we do not make the plate too thin at first, so that deep 
cutting may break it. . . . 

" Above all therefore, and especially for boys, a dry master is to be 
avoided, not less than a dry soil void of all moisture for plants that 
are still tender. Under the influence of such a tutor they at once 
become dwarfish; . . . while they think it sufficient to be free from 
fault, they fall into the fault of being free from all merit. Let not 
even maturity itself therefore come too fast." 83 

The principle for guiding correction of exercises with reference to 
different ages is well indicated in passages quoted on earlier pages. 8 * 

(c) Care, not haste, is the desideratum in this work of composi- 
tion. 

(d) Poetical narrative came in the previous school; now comes 
historical narrative, which has, he says, more of truth, more of sub- 

79 II, 8 : 6-10. Compare this with Cicero's view as to the relative 
worth of genius and diligence, — De Or. II, 35. 

80 Note also that Quintilian lays stress on culture and emphasizes 
practice. His book is full of passages suggesting these things. 

81 II, 4:1. 

82 II, 4:4, 5. 

88 II, 4:7-8. 

8*1, 3:6; II, 4:i2ff. See also II, 6:4ff. 



i 5 2 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

stance. Good grading is a part of good method, and Quintilian is 
strong here as elsewhere. From simple narrative he proceeds through 
various stages of argumentative and judicial writing, including briefs, 
much of it of a simple type, to be compared with the average high 
school senior's efforts of the present day. The work requires close 
study and very definite training. That a considerable part of it is ele- 
mentary and preparatory will be seen in this significant passage, which 
occurs in connection with his description of the first stage of writing : — 

" There will be a proper time," he says, " for acquiring facility of 
speech; . . . but in the mean time it will be sufficient, if a boy with 
all his care and with the utmost application of which his age is capable, 
can write something tolerable. To this practice let him accustom him- 
self and make it natural to him. He only will succeed in attaining 
the eminence at which we aim, or the point next below it, who shall 
learn to speak correctly before he learns to speak rapidly." 85 

Perfection of style is not the object at this stage. 

With writing is to go practice in the oral reading of history and 
speeches, with a careful study of passages from the points of view of 
language, rhetoric, and literature. Quintilian thinks the teacher would 
contribute much to the advancement of pupils, 

"if, as the explanation of poets is required from teachers of gram- 
mar, so he (the rhetoric teacher) in like manner would exercise the 
pupils under his care in the reading of history, and even still more in 
that of speeches." But long custom, he tells us, has established a 
different mode of teaching. For himself, however, he says, and this 
is an indication of the greatness of the man, " though I should make a 
new discovery ever so late, I should not be ashamed to recommend 
it for the future." 86 

(e) What Quintilian advises in the study of the selections is finely 
indicated in the following passages : — 87 

" But to point out the beauties of authors and, if occasion ever pre- 
sents itself, their faults, is eminently consistent with that profession 
and engagement by which he (the teacher of rhetoric) offers himself 
to the public as a master of eloquence, especially as I do not require 
such toil from teachers that they should call their pupils to their lap 
and labor at the reading of whatever book each of them may fancy. 
For to me it seems easier as well as more advantageous that the mas- 
ter, after calling for silence, should appoint some one pupil to read, 
(and it will be best that this duty should be imposed on them in turns), 
that they may thus accustom themselves to clear pronunciation ; and 
then, after explaining the cause for which the oration was composed, 
(for so that which is said will be better understood), that he should 
leave nothing unnoticed which is important to be remarked, either in 
thought or language, or in argument and rhetorical features for forensic 
purposes." 

8511,4:15-17. 87H ? 5:5 ff, 

••11,5. 



QUINTILIAN'S SECONDARY SCHOOL 153 

"In regard to style, he should notice any expression that is pecu- 
liarly appropriate, elegant, or sublime; when the amplification deserves 
praise; what quality is opposed to it; what phrases are happily 
metaphorical, what figures of speech are used, what part of the com- 
position is smooth and polished, and yet manly and vigorous." 

" Nor will the preceptor be under obligation merely to teach these 
things, but frequently to ask questions upon them, and try the judgment 
of his pupils. Thus" carelessness will not come upon them while they 
listen, nor will the instructions that shall be given fail to enter their 
ears ; and they will at the same time be conducted to the end which is 
sought in this exercise, namely that they themselves may conceive and 
understand." 

This is a lesson in rhetoric, as well as in literature and composition. 
It is concrete, correlated rhetoric, — rhetoric of the best and most 
educative sort, because it shows it in its natural environment, is prac- 
tical, not theoretical. Quintilian well says, — 

" I venture to say that this sort of diligent exercise will contribute 
more to the improvement of students than all the treatises of all the 
rhetoricians that ever wrote; which doubtless, however, are of con- 
siderable use, but their scope is more general; and how indeed can 
they go into all kinds of questions that arise almost every day? ... In 
almost every art precepts are of much less avail than practical experi- 
ments." 88 

Here again, then, Quintilian, true to his principles, provides for a 
study of literature as an essential part of his method, which includes 
imitation, practice, and the exercise of judgment for the purpose of 
modifying, adapting, adding to, and even exceeding, one's models. He 
shows his practical bent and sound judgment, which are everywhere 
manifest in his book, by advising the best authors from the beginning: 

" I would choose the clearest in style and most intelligible, recom- 
mending Livy, for instance, to be read by boys, rather than Sallust, 
who, however, is the greater historian." 

Pupils at this age are more likely to look at externals; hence the 
need of intelligent care in selecting. As to style, he recommends, for 
early years till tastes are formed, something between the crudeness and 
dryness of early writers and the florid style of some of the later ones. 
When the danger period is past, however, he recommends them 

"to read not only the ancients (from whom, if a solid and manly 
force of thought be adopted, while the rust of a rude age is cleared 
off, our present style will receive additional grace), but also the writers 
of the present day, in whom there is much merit." The latter must be 
selected with care. " Who they are is not for everybody to decide. 
We may even err with greater safety in regard to the ancients ; and 
I would therefore defer the reading of the moderns, that imitation may 
not go before judgment." 89 

88 II, 5:14. 89 H, 5:i9ff. 



154 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

(f) To return to writing, there are two general modes of procedure 
in giving the training in this work that forms his chief means for 
developing the orator: i. Directions with illustrations by the master 
before writing; 2, directions (outlines) before writing, with additions 
and emendations after the writing. He believes that both modes have 
advantages but he thinks that, 

" if it should be necessary to follow only one of the two, it will be 
of greater service to point out the right way first than to recall those 
who have gone astray from their errors." 90 

(s) Quintilian deals very discriminatingly with "rules." The pupil 
is to be a thorough master of principles and details. But rules must not 
be abused. Care must be exercised not to make them an end. Judg- 
ment and proportion are to influence in the matter. Principles must 
become a part of one's own nature, and one must consult his own 
personality apart from instruction and rules. 91 

"He must exert his own powers and acquire his own method; he 
must not merely look to principles, but must have them in readiness 
to act upon them, not as if they had been taught him, but as if they 
had been born in him. For art can easily show a way, if there be one ; 
but art has done its duty when it sets the resources of eloquence before 
us ; it is for us to know how to use them." 92 

Practice is to make a kind of intuition for work that will obviate 
constant reference to rules. 

One of Quintilian's most striking passages, in which he criticises 
some of the education of his day (easily paralleled in modern, and 
even in present-day education), puts the matter very clearly: — 

" In the meantime I would not have young men think themselves 
sufficiently accomplished, if they have learned by heart some of those 
little books on rhetoric which have been handed about. The art of 
speaking depends on great labor, constant study, varied exercise, re- 
peated trials, the deepest sagacity, and the readiest judgment. But it 
is assisted by rules, provided that they point out a fair road and not 
a single wheel rut, from which he who thinks it unlawful to decline 
must be contented with the slow progress of those who walk on ropes. 
. . . The work of eloquence is extensive and of infinite variety, pre- 
senting something new almost daily; nor will all that is possible ever 
have been said about it." 93 

(h) Akin to this, but from a slightly different direction, is his 
statement as to the relative importance of some of the elements of 

90 II, 6:2-6. 

81 II, 13; VIII, Introd., 28; VII, 10:14. Order, judgment, method 
are three favorite general rules; but he is not speaking of rules of 
this kind. See also page 153. 

92 VII, 10 : 14, 15. 

93 II, 13 : 15-17. 



QUINTILIAN'S SECONDARY SCHOOL 155 

oratory. He recommends, as already noted, " care about words, and 
the utmost care about matter." 94 He seems to imply that there is a 
tendency to emphasize words too much and to neglect things that he 
makes the foundation. 

"The best words generally attach themselves to our subject, and 
show themselves by their own light. . . . They are to be found close 
to the subject. . . . The best expressions are such as are least far- 
fetched and have an air of simplicity, appearing to spring from truth 
itself." 95 

In keeping with this is the caution that sentiments spring from the 
subjects themselves and cannot be manufactured beforehand, as some 
seem to think. 

(i) But though Quintilian lays particular stress upon the funda- 
mental elements, and upon the simple and practical in oratorical train- 
ing, it must not be supposed that he was averse to embellishment, as 
some passages might seem to indicate. Quintilian paid due attention to 
ornament. Even in the statement of facts, which might seem as prosy 
as anything, he says: 

" I think that the statement of fact requires, as much as any part 
of the speech, to be adorned with all the attractions and grace of 
which it is susceptible," and the manner of presentation must vary 
with the case. 96 

One can easily detect a Quintilian touch in Webster's presentation of 
a case, by comparing some of the latter's language with some of Quintil- 
ian's directions. 

5. There is to be a vigorous preparation for the Forum. Quin- 
tilian finds the present exercises in the schools tame and weak. He 
would have his pupil 

"aspire to victory in these schools, and learn to strike at the vital 
parts of his adversary and to protect his own. Let the preceptor exact 
such manly exercise above all things and bestow the highest com- 
mendation on it when it is displayed." 

Another criticism of the schools is found in the suggestion that 
school training, as practiced, is too confining, that there is minute 
and careful training, but that it tends to fix in certain lines that affect 
one badly when the actual test comes. 97 

A similar thought is enforced in several passages in which he con- 
tends that formal training is not the sum of preparation for the orator, 
that training must be real and vital, brought into close touch with life. 
One must try the Forum, even while a pupil. Writing is the "great 
modeler of excellence" in the orator, but another step is necessary to 
reach the end. Power to speak crowns the efforts of a teacher. 98 

9 *VIII, Introd., 20. 97 II, 10; V, 12:22. 

95 VIII, Introd., 21-23. 9 » X, 1 : 3. 

96 IV, 2:116. 



156 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

It was customary for pupils to learn by heart what they had com- 
posed and repeat it on a certain day. Quintilian disapproves of this, 
for "proficiency depends chiefly on the diligent cultivation of style." 
In committing and declamation he recommends " select passages from 
orations and histories, or any other sort of writing deserving of at- 
tention." This provides for memory work, supplies models of the 
best compositions that will work silently in forming style, and gives 
command of a fine vocabulary (a three-fold one, consisting of words, 
phrases, figures) that will offer itself spontaneously in future work." 
But he also provides for declaiming one's own compositions occasionally, 
and so shows his good pedagogy by appealing to adolescent quali- 
ties. 1 

Declamation is "the most recently invented of all exercises and by 
far the most useful. For it comprehends within itself all those ex- 
ercises of which I have been treating and presents us with a very close 
resemblance to reality." 

But he tells us that the exercise has degenerated and so has been one 
of the chief agencies that have corrupted eloquence. He would bring 
it back to its possibilities. 2 

Some principles of method for the final stage of training. — The 
boy now " knows how to invent and arrange his matter " and " has also 
acquired the art of selecting and disposing his words." Quintilian 
would next instruct him " by what means he may be able to practice in 
the best and easiest possible manner that which he has learned." 3 
Here begins the final instalment of his training in the art of oratory. 
This may perhaps be regarded as the post-secondary part of his School 
of Rhetoric. Once again following his spiral system he recurs to his 
three-fold division of work and brings the spiral one turn further up. 
Here are some of his points : — 

(a) Constant reading of standard literature for a more critical study 
of models, in order to develop expression and style. 

" For a long time none but the best authors must be read and such 
as are least likely to mislead him who trusts them, and they must be 
read. . . almost with as much care as if we were transcribing them." 4 

" While we receive all language first of all by the ear," 5 he thinks 
there is special value in reading and digesting carefully, as it gives a 
more deliberative mastery of language. This critical study of literature 
is to give, first, words, 6 — not merely vocabulary, but facility in adapt- 
ing words to situations, — then expression and style. He lays special 
stress on argumentative style, but not narrowly, as seen by the wide 
range of his literature course. 

99 II, 7 : 4- 4 X, 1 : 20. 

1 II, 7 : 5. 5 X, 1 : 10. 

2 II, 10. ex, i:6ff. 
3 X, 1:4. 



QUINTILIAN'S SECONDARY SCHOOL 157 

In this connection comes in again his fundamental psychological prin- 
ciple, imitation, broadly interpreted. 

(b) Development of judgment and initiative, which Quintilian pre- 
sents with striking force. Here we have his final school work for 
developing individuality. 

(c) Constant practice in writing, following a carefully graded 
course. 7 

(d) As writing is the key to excellence his further pedagogical ob- 
servations on the subject will be of interest. First then we note some 
general principles : — 

1. " By writing quickly we are not brought to write well. By writ- 
ing well we are brought to write quickly." 8 

2. " Let our pen be at first slow, provided that it be accurate. Let 
us search for what is best and not allow ourselves to be readily pleased 
with whatever presents itself. Let judgment be applied to our thoughts, 
and skill in arrangement to such of them as the judgment sanctions. 
. . . The weight of each (word) must be carefully estimated, and then 
must follow the art of collocation; and the rhythm of our phrases 
must be tried in every possible way, since any word must not take its 
position just as it offers itself." 9 

3. Practice and method assist in giving readiness. Method is work- 
ing according to the nature of the subject, nature of the characters con- 
cerned, disposition of the judge, and requirements of the occasion. 10 

4. " I consider that the greatest facility in composition is acquired 
by exercise in the simplest subjects. . . . But the great proof of power 
is to expand what is naturally contracted, to amplify what is little, to 
give variety to things that are similar, and attraction to such as are 
obvious, and to say with effect much on little." 1X 

Quintilian also gives some interesting suggestions as to means, con- 
ditions, environment, and mechanics of writing. 

1. He suggests practice in translation and similar exercises as defi- 
nitely helpful for his main object, (a) translation from Greek into 
Latin for matter and art, in which Greek excels. Such an exercise 
assures, he believes, better choice of words and secures figures for 
ornament, " because the Roman tongue differs greatly from that of the 
Greeks." 12 But Latin excels Greek in certain things, and its real genius 
is to be brought out. (b) He would have his pupil convert Latin into 
other words, (c) He recommends turning poetry into prose for ele- 

7 See X, 3 : 13. For grading conf . X, 5, where Quintilian gives some 
very interesting suggestions. Order of development is seen in his 
statement that power comes first by speaking, next by imitation, and 
last by " diligent exercise in writing." " But, ... as our work pro- 
ceeds, those things that were of the greatest importance begin to appear 
of the least." X, 1:3, 4. 

8 X l3 :io. 10 X, 3:1s. 12 X, 5:2,3. 

9 X, 3:5. "X, 5:10, II. 



158 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

vation of style, for training in exactness, through getting at the real 
prose equivalent, and for general broadening of expression by compar- 
ing the two languages and studying expression-rivalry between them. 13 
(d) Paraphrasing Latin orations helps in gaining language power, 
encourages care in study and writing, and stimulates ambition to excel 
the original. 14 (e) " It will be serviceable also to vary our own (lan- 
guage) in a number of different forms, taking certain thoughts for the 
purpose and putting them as harmoniously as possible into different 
shapes." 15 

2. He makes several practical suggestions as to the method of writ- 
ing. . 

(a) He would have one be his own amanuensis, because it gives 
better conditions for thinking with some deliberation. In the case 
of dictating, with a rapid amanuensis it tends to bring haste and care- 
lessness in composing, while with a slow amanuensis it obstructs the 
course of thought and dispels its fire. Besides, it destroys the privacy 
needed for vivid thinking. 16 

(b) He would avoid running through the subject and getting a rough 
copy and then revising. Better use care at the outset and then polish, 
he thinks. 17 

(c) For better connection repeat the last words of what has just 
been written; 

" for besides that by this means what follows is better connected 
with what precedes, the ardor of thought that has cooled by the delay 
of writing receives its strength anew, and, by going again over the 
ground, acquires new force." 18 

(d) As to environment, the best condition for writing by day is 
not retirement amid nature's charms, which are diverting, but Demos- 
thenes' secluded place, " where no voice can be heard and no prospect 
contemplated"; — at night a closed chamber with "the silence of the 
night . . . and a single light for company." But one must also accustom 
himself to " set all interruptions at defiance " and must be able to secure 
a kind of privacy for thought anywhere. 19 

(e) There are certain principles for correction which he likes : — 
<'(a) After the writing is done lay away the copy, (b) Do not correct 
too much. There are some, he says, 

"who return to whatever they compose as if they presumed it to 
be incorrect, and as if nothing can be right that has presented itself 
first; they think whatever is different from it is better and find some- 
thing to correct as often as they take up their manuscript, like surgeons 
who make an incision even in sound places ; and hence it happens that 
their writings are, so to speak, scarred and bloodless and rendered 

13 X, 5:4. 17 X, 3:17, 18. 

14 X, 5:Sff. 18 X, 3:6. 

15 X, s : 9. 19 X, 3 : 22 ff. 

16 X, 3:19. 



QUINTILIAN'S SECONDARY SCHOOL 159 

worse by the remedies applied. Let what we write therefore some- 
times please, or at least content us, that the file may polish our work 
and not wear it away to nothing." Again he says, " Nor do I think 
that those who have acquired some power in the use of the pen should 
be chained down to the unhappy task of perpetually finding fault with 
themselves." 20 

(f) Quintilian also brings in some details of an external nature. 21 
(a) He advises writing on wax-tablets, for ease in erasing and for 
quickness (unless eyes require parchment), and he suggests that some 
leaves be left blank and that some space be left vacant for jotting down 
odd thoughts that may occur to us on other subjects (which reminds 
us of De Quincey's method of writing), (b) Again the pupil's tablets 
should not be too broad, "having found a youth," he says, "otherwise 
anxious to excel, make his compositions of too great a length, because 
he used to measure them by the number of lines," and the fault could 
not be corrected without altering the size of his tablets. The modern 
teacher often finds length usurping the place of substance. 

3. Speaking. The Forum. — But writing is not enough. There 
must be speaking, if the orator is to have the needed practical training. 
So Quintilian emphasizes a new series of declamations " made similar 
to actual pleadings." 22 The student must come to real life ; reality 
tells. In addition to what he has already provided in declamations 
the young aspirant is to choose an orator and attend on him carefully. 
He is to be present at as many trials as possible. He is to set down 
real cases in writing and to handle both sides of the question. 

"The young man will thus be sooner qualified for the Forum whom 
his master has obliged to approach in his declamation as nearly as 
possible to reality and to range through all sorts of cases." 23 

4. The pupil is now well on the way to extempore speaking, which 
represents the highest degree of oratorical power. But there is an 
intermediate step between his present status and that. " Next to writ- 
ing is meditation," i.e., thinking a matter out instead of writing it, to 
be followed by speaking. But much practice in writing gives " a certain 
form of thinking . . . that may be continually attendant on our medi- 
tations." A habit of thinking must be gradually gained by a method 
like that noted in his treatment of memory. The student is to gain 
such latitude in meditated speaking that he will not be chained to a 
fixed scheme, but will be able to incorporate a "happy conception of 
the moment " without confusing his plans. 24 

Extempore speaking is the final field of effort for the orator, who 
must have power to meet sudden calls where preparation is impos- 
sible. Quintilian continues his description of the course of training 
for this final end with the same masterly detail found throughout his 
work. We may sum it up by saying that by study, art, and practice 

2 °X, 3:10; X, 4:3. 22 X, 5:14. 24 X , 6. 

21 X, 3 : 3i-3. 23 X, 5 : 19 ff- 



160 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

a kind of intuitive method in speaking is developed to relieve the mind 
of pressure and allow it to expend its force constructively so that, 

"while we are uttering what is immediately present to our thoughts, 
we may be arranging what is to follow, . . . and our prospect may 
advance no less than our step," — a power " such as that by which the 
hand runs on in writing and by which the eye in reading sees several 
lines with their turns and transitions at once, and perceives what foU 
lows before the voice has uttered what precedes." 25 

But notwithstanding his regard for extempore speaking he remarks 
significantly that he would never wish, for his own part, to have such 
confidence in his readiness to speak 

" as not to take at least a short time, which may almost always be had, 
to consider what he is going to say. . . . We must study at all times 
and in all places ; for there is scarcely a single one of our days so oc- 
cupied that some profitable attention may not be hastily devoted, dur- 
ing at least some portion of it, . . . to writing or reading or speak- 
ing." 26 

In connection with speaking Quintilian expresses his " full approba- 
tion of short notes and of small memorandum books which may be 
held in hand." But he disapproves of written summaries as likely to 
weaken memory power. He forgets nothing. 27 

It will be fitting to close this summary with two very pertinent and 
admirable suggestions of Quintilian that show the man : — 

i. " No portion even of our common conversation should ever be 
careless. . . . Whatever we say, and wherever we say it, should be 
as far as possible excellent in its kind." 

2. " As to writing, we must certainly never write more than when 
we have to speak much extempore; for by the use of the pen a 
weightiness will be preserved in our matter, and that light facility of 
language, which swims as it were on the surface, will be compressed 
into a body." 28 

Good advice for modern language teachers. 

The two final books, which need not concern us in detail here, give 
emphasis to " delivery " and the training by which it may be attained, 
and to the higher studies of the orator, — the professional side of his 
work, — and his psychological and philosophical studies. — They take up 
also a discussion of different styles of oratory and a characterization 
of prominent orators. 

Quintilian has given us an enterprising course of training, broad, 
strong, thorough, and illuminated with a wealth of detail and illustra- 
tion. His great pedagogical treatise has left its impress on all succeed- 
ing centuries. 

Brief outlines and a table of comparisons follow. 

l 5 *>7- 27 X, 7:31,32. 

26 X, 7:20, 27. 28 X, 7:28. 



QUINTILIAN'S SECONDARY SCHOOL 161 

Topics and References. — Cicero's De Oratore. 

Education as conceived by Cicero. (General treatment — Omits elemen- 
tary education) 
i. Aim: — Complete Orator: — 1:8, 26 f; 111:22. 

2. Analysis of Complete Orator. 

(1) Character necessary. — II : 20, 43, 82; III: 14, 18. 

(2) Wise, educated, cultured man. Language power and memory 
enforced: — I: 2, 5, 6, 8, 11-16, 25, 26, 28, 32, 34, 36; II: 1, 2, 
8, 9, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27, 51 ; HI : 13, 14, 19, 20, 25, 31 i., 35, 49 f., 51. 

(3) An appreciation of relations of life and disposition to throw 
himself into the circumstances and exigencies of life, public, and 
private: — 1 : 10, 11; 11:9, 16; III: 17. 

(4) Special and technical qualities of orator needed : — capacity 
to make word meet time, occasion, person, subject matter. Mas- 
ter in public debate and private conversation — 1 : 5, 8, 
12, 21, 28, 31, 34; II : 25, 27, 31-2, 58 f., 79; HI : 11, 12, 14, 45 U 
49 f-, 51. 56 f. 

(5) Judgment, self-control, confidence. Dignified, yet approach- 
able; cosmopolitan, yet incisively Roman. Individuality. 

Summary: Liberally trained man and professionally trained man 
combined, each brought to highest perfection. 

3. Relations of orator. 

(1) Personal ascendency: — 1:4, 8, 33; 11:8. Brutus 15, 54. 

(2) Public interests, etc.: — 1:8, 9, 11, 36; 11:9, 16; III : 1-2, 17. 

4. Subject matter for training. No systematic treatment. (Grouping 

of scattered statements.) 

(1) Language, — vocabulary, grammar, rhetoric, composition: — I: 
5, 12, 21, 31, 32, 33, 34; 11:23, (38) ; HI:7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 19, 

25 f., 44 f., 49, 51. All linguistic elements. 

(2) Literature (formal value; culture value): — 1:5, 28, 34; III: 
10, 13. 

(3) Philosophy and practical psychology (emotions) : — 1:3, 5, 12 
14, 15, 28, si, 52; II: 81; 111:35- 

(4) Law,— civil and general : — 1 : 5, II, 14, 15, 28, 34. 

(5) Music: — 11:8; III: 44 f- 

(6) History: — 1:5, 34; H : 15- 

(7) Mathematics : — 1 : 14 ; II : 15. 

(8) Military affairs and politics : — I: 11, 14, 15, 34. 

(9) Delivery (all elements) : — 1:5, 28, 31; 11:45; III: 11, 12, 49 f., 
56 f. 

(10) Everything within range of human intelligence: — 1:4, 5, 6, 16, 
34; II: 1, 2, 15, 16. 

5. Pedagogical principles and method: — (General and unscientific.) 
, a. General pedagogical principles : — 

(1) Relation of art to power. Helpful, but subordinate to talent: 
— 1:23, 32; 11:3, 7, 35; Relation of talent, art and diligence. 
Diligence supreme, II : 35. 

(2) Careful attention to individual: — II: 20; 111:9. 

(3) Inadvisable to separate training in thought power, etc., from 
training in delivery and rhetoric : — III : 6, 15 ff., 19, 20. 



162 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

(4) Anti-specialization : — III : 5, 6, 33. 

(5) Roman traditions desired: — 1:6. 
b. Special principles guiding method : — 

(1) Talent (relation to education) : — 1:25, 28, 32; 11:7, 35- 

(2) Imitation : — II : 21, 22, 23. 

(3) Memory training, (memory-storehouse). Practice; mnemon- 

ics : — 1 : 5, 34 ; II : 86-88. 

(4) Relation of literature to education : — 

a. Subject matter for imitation and absorption: — 1 : 21, 34; 
III : 10, 19. 

b. Training value (read, turn over, praise, censure, inter- 
pret, correct, refute) : — 1:34- 

(5) Composition (writing most excellent modeller and teacher of 
oratory) : — 1 : 21, 33, 34 ; II : 23 ; III : 44 f ., 52. 

(6) Value of translation. 1 : 34. 

(7) Generalization needed. " Common places," etc. II : 16, 27, 30, 
31, 32, 34, 4i; 111:30. 

(8) Ability to see and discuss both sides : — 1 : 34. 

(9) Extempore work subordinate to deliberate preparation and 
dependent on it : — 1 : 33. 

( 10) Humor : — II : 54 ff. 

(11) Practice, drill, — key to all efficiency: — 1:4, 3 2 , 33, 34; II : 20, 
21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 35. 

All studies taught from practical standpoint. 
Summary: — Main principles of method, — talent, imitation, habit, 

memory, practice; formal training. 
Agents of Education: 

Parents and nurse (correct form of speech). Some train- 
ing from specialists ; some from familiar converse ; some from 
practical observation (Forum). Some from foreign travel 
and study, if possible. 
In his Brutus Cicero shows with enthusiasm his training from the 
age of 16, — attending the Forum; studying hard (reading, writing, 
private declamation); pursuing the studies of philosophy and logic; 
taking rhetorical instruction under Molo, the principles of jurispru- 
dence under Scaevola ; trying his abilities by undertaking at an early 
age the " management of causes, both public and private " ; foreign 
travel with renewed study of philosophy and oratory; contact with and 
training under the most distinguished orators of Asia. His earnestness 
in study may be seen from a statement made in the midst of his de- 
scription of his course of training^ — "In the meanwhile I pursued my 
studies of every kind day and night with unremitting application." 
Brutus, LXXXIX-XCL. 
Here is one of his fundamental principles in work : — 
" Since then in speaking three things are requisite in finding argu- 
ment, genius, method. . . . and diligence, I cannot but assign the 
chief place to genius, but diligence can raise even genius itself out 
of dullness. ... It is capable of effecting almost everything. . . . Art 
only shows you where to look and where that lies which you want to 
find; all the rest depends on care, attention, consideration, vigilance, 
assiduity, industry, all which I include in that one word that I have 
so often repeated, diligence, a single virtue in which all other virtues 
are comprehended." De Or., II, 35. 



QUINTILIAN'S SECONDARY SCHOOL 163 



APPENDIX III 

Tabular Summary 

I. Roman Ideals in Education — Quintilian. 

Aim 

Perfect Orator, 

High Character, 

Liberally educated, 

Professionally trained, 

Working for (state, general public), and himself. 

Practical Ideal. (Oratory end in itself) 

II. Subject matter — Curriculum. 
(Age Limits Indefinite.) 



Curriculum described in great 

detail. See preceding appendix. 
Ante-school period : — 

Language — 1. Greek. 2. Latin. 

Writing. 

General information. 

Ethics. 
Elementary school period : — 

Language — Writing — Num- 
ber (?) 

Composition, elementary. 

General information. 

Ethics. 
Grammar school period : — 

Grammatics : — 

1. Art of speaking and writ- 
ing correctly. 

2. Literature (culture- value; 



formal value). Many sided 
study. 

3. Very abstract study of in- 
tricacies of grammar. 

Elementary composition. 

Elementary Rhetoric. Ele- 
mentary Elocution. Music. 
Arithmetic. Geometry. As- 
tronomy. 

Delivery (elementary). 
Higher School: 

Advanced composition (style; 
elaboration). 

Wide course in literature. 

Philosophy, — ■ physics, ethics, 
dialectic. Mnemonics. De- 
livery. 

(All learning) 



METHOD 



Talent 

Individual attention 

Interest 

Imitation 

Habit 

Memory, — information storing. 

Objective work. Much concrete- 
ness. 

Rules -f practice based on imita- 
tion. 

Correlation prominent. 

Generalization power developed. 

Development of initiative. 

Most prominent elements of 
method : — 



Practice and drill. — Formal Dis- 
cipline. 

Exercises for developing initia- 
tive. 

Writing, — composition, — the chief 
instrument of training. 

Discipline 
Mild 
Firm 
Wise 
Teacher + Pupil 

Choice of teachers and attendants 
made much of. Teacher the 
best part of method. 

Public Schools preferred. 



X 

JESUS, TEACHER — NEW PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION 

Decadence of Roman schools. New aims needed. — As in- 
dicated in the last chapter, the old Roman schools, which con- 
tinued vigorous longest in Gaul, soon lost their life, because 
they lost their vital relations with the life of the Empire. 
Freedom was gone. The opportunity for individual initiative 
had passed, and there came what always must come when 
the individual and individual responsibility are sunk in large 
aggregations, — decadence. In education, as already noted, 
linguistics occupied the field, and they became an end in them- 
selves. Thus form ruled, and decadence naturally came here, 
as in the Empire at large. Education needed re-objectifying 
in order to recover its life ; some new and vital touch with the 
world must be found, and language as the supreme element in 
education, according to Roman pedagogy, must find something 
to do and something worth doing, if it was to regain its vital- 
ity. It had not long to wait. A new order of life and thought 
with new aims and new view-points was forming, which 
eventually gave infinite scope to old elements of education and 
suggested new elements. 

A new religious and educational force. — In the eighth 
century of Rome and the twentieth of Israel, according to 
traditional chronology, just as the ancient schools, typified by 
those of Greece and Rome, had reached their zenith in organi- 
zation and efficiency, a new force that was simply a new view 
of life came into the world. It appeared suddenly, for it was 
so unlike its surroundings that its appearance was like an 
unheralded event. Of course we can see a slow evolution 
toward this supreme moment, and a few at that time were not 
unprepared for it ; but for the world at large it was far other- 
wise. The new force was Christianity, not a new religion, but 

164 



NEW PRINCIPLES 165 

a new phase of religion. It was to revolutionize education. 
Its principles were to make a new pedagogy. 

It will contribute toward an appreciation of its force and its 
power of growth to note the circumstances that surrounded its 
advent and the fundamental idea that characterized it. At 
any rate it will be interesting and suggestive to do this. 

Circumstances surrounding its advent. — The Roman Em- 
pire was at its best. It was passing through the happiest, most 
buoyant, most hopeful period that it saw in its long history. 
With its conquered world organized with a matchless system 
that became the model for all succeeding centuries, both in state 
and in church, it was enjoying a peace that is aptly described 
as golden. 

" No war or battle's sound 
Was heard the world around ; 
The idle spear and shield were high up-hung." 

There were no circumstances distraught and distressing that 
urged men's minds to seek new faith and new religious ideas 
for solace and deliverance. There was abundant leisure for 
new study, it is true, and a new religious form was a curiosity 
to be examined with interest and to be discussed like any other 
curious phenomenon, and perhaps to win some signs of adher- 
ence. The religion of Jesus, however, was apparently too 
humble and suggested too much self-forgetfulness, too much 
subordination of self to one's work, to influence the educated 
and the leaders. 

On the other hand, the proud peoples that had been subdued 
by Roman arms were looking for deliverance, for a liberator 
who should bring them back to their pristine vigor and restore 
their autonomy. Of these proud peoples the Hebrews were 
the proudest. But while they were looking for a new order 
their very ambition made them scrutinize the ideas and meth- 
ods of any would-be leader with a discrimination and intensity 
that were very natural, though they have been misunderstood. 
If the new ideas did not square literally with national aspira- 
tions they had no chance of being accepted readily. Strong 
preconceptions absolutely forbade a spiritual interpretation of 
the nation's destiny. A politically restored Israel, a new 



166 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

realization of a great people's prestige, a new opportunity to 
develop initiative were aims held with an intensity we are in 
no danger of overestimating. New religious ideals had little 
chance in these conditions. 

The very constitution of the Roman world, conquerors and 
conquered, was thus distinctly unfavorable for any rapid con- 
quests by the ideals of Jesus. The new ideas must win by 
their own inherent force and by a gradual and cumulative 
process. 

Two fundamental characteristics. — The two fundamental 
characteristics of the " new religion " that disclose at once its 
inherent strength, its genius, and its method, by which it has 
won its way from that time to this, are its simple reasonable- 
ness and its appeal to the individual. It aimed first of all at 
individuals, not at masses. Its real mission was to rouse indi- 
vidual thought and initiative. Each individual was thus a 
vital force, and the cumulative effect was a multitude of forces 
banded in a great movement that was finally resistless. First 
a few Israelites ; then a few Romans and Greeks ; numbers 
grew at first slowly, then rapidly. But in it all the method 
was first and chiefly individual. 

Pedagogy of the Gospels. — All this however does not 
really explain the influence and power of the new leader. To 
understand his genius we need to study his personal attitudes 
and relationships and his principles of work. In other words 
we must study the pedagogy of the Gospels, the foundation of 
all modern pedagogy. 1 

1 A brief resume of a larger and more detailed study. It is based 
on a collation of more than four hundred teaching episodes of Jesus. 

References are made to all the Gospels, but chiefly to the three 
Synoptics that represent Jesus in the concrete. This is a natural rather 
than a studied plan. It will be noted that these references are sufficient 
to illustrate the points. Allusions to the Gospel that bears the name of 
John support and add to the others. This is true whether we are to 
believe that, with dramatic instinct and in Thucydidean spirit, words 
supporting the central fact of Jesus, which the writer was trying to 
express in the fourth Gospel, are placed in the mouth of the great 
Teacher, or whether episodes in His life not gathered by others, but 
perhaps found in the numerous Christian Gospels current at the time 
and ascribed to the Apostles, have been culled and used by this later 
writer. (Conf. "What I believe and Why," by W. H. Ward, in 
Independent, 81 : 207.) We are here studying simply the Teacher. 



NEW PRINCIPLES 167 

Jesus preeminently a teacher. — Jesus of Nazareth was 
preeminently a teacher. This was appropriately so for two 
reasons. First, a new ideal of life, a new type of religion, a 
new philosophy, if you will, were to be incorporated into the 
life of the world, to become vital elements in both individual 
and civic thought and action. This required the function of 
teaching more than that of preaching; for the many-sided 
training needed to make the new a real part of the world's 
forces comes of slow, patient, resourceful teaching, rather 
than of the swifter, briefer and more intermittent action of 
preaching. Second, the new required supporters, specially 
trained men, intimate with the author and expounder of the 
new, devoted to Him, and capable of continuing the tradition 
of His life and principles. Such agents are the products of 
teaching. So both the general ends to be attained and the 
special means for furthering the ends suggested the teacher. 
The attitude of Jesus was that of the teacher in almost every 
episode we recall in His life. It is true that in a few cases 
we seem to have a discourse, but this is not inconsistent with 
good teaching under proper conditions, and in the most con- 
spicuous case, the Sermon on the Mount, " His disciples came 
unto Him," which of itself implies teaching. 

His principles. — The principles taught by this marvelous 
teacher, or implied in His teaching, were capable of revolu- 
tionizing education. His method of teaching and His teach- 
ing qualities were new and striking, involving, for those who 
could interpret them, a complete change in pedagogy. 

It is sufficient here to outline these matters briefly, as the 
aim is not to analyze exhaustively the pedagogy of the Gos- 
pels, but merely to suggest certain points that would naturally 
affect education of that day and of succeeding days. We 
should formulate then these two general principles as the most 
important in this connection : — 

1. There is no hierarchy of souls. All things are open to 
all. 2 Education, which has hitherto been for the few, is now 

2 His teaching relations had infinite range. Doctors in the temple at 
Jerusalem (Luke 2:46), and the multitude in nature's temple by the 
sea (Mark 4); judge and ruler (Mark 5:22, John 18:36ft.), and the 
outcast subject (Mark 23:39ft".); high ruler of the synagogue (John 
3), and despised alien (Luke 19, John 4); strong, reasoning rabbi, 



168 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

in all its grades to be the prerogative of all who will. The 
record teems with instances in which He was approached by- 
all classes and conditions of men, or in which His masterful 
spirit went out spontaneously to meet special educational 
needs. There is not a single instance in which any one who 
took even a half-hearted learning attitude went away empty. 
2. There is no restriction in means. 2. Each is to receive 
that which is most needed to educate him for the Kingdom of 
God, which was the supreme end, and which, duly interpreted, 
is to-day regarded as the supreme end everywhere. Two things 
are involved here: — I. There is infinite scope for the cur- 
riculum. To the old abstract studies others of a different 
nature are inevitably to be added, if the principle is to maintain 
its vitality. The spirit of the Gospels would welcome the best 
everywhere, but in union with the supreme end that has just 
been referred to. 2. Outside of certain general principles, 
there are no hard and fast lines of method that each must fol- 
low. Christ suited His material and His manner of using it 
to the mind with which He had to deal. Thus individual 
teaching was involved. This idea was not perhaps absolutely 
new, but it was presented so vividly and with so many prac- 

(Luke 10:25 ft.; Matt. 22: 34 ff.), and the defective youth (Matt. 
I7:i4ff.); orthodox (Matt. 15; Mark 12), and heterodox (Mark 
12: 18 ff.) ; rich young man (Matt. 19: 16 ff.), and blind beggar (Mark 
10:46 ff.) ; familiar friends (John n; Luke io:38ff.), and strangers 
broadcast (Matt. 11:7; Luke 6:17; John 12:20); the mature man 
(Mark 9:i7ff. ; John 3), and the little child (Mark 10:3),— all re- 
ceived His definite attention and teaching influence. 

As to quotations from John here and elsewhere see note 1. 

3 The passages quoted in the last note indicate a wide range of 
means. Jesus approached the matter to be taught in various ways. 
For method and illustrations He drew from the Book of Law 
and the Book of Nature, (Mark 12; John 5; Luke 6) ; from past and 
present, remote and near (Mark 2:23; 12:41 ff. ; Luke 4: 16 ff.; 13, 14, 
15, 16); from the abstract and the concrete (Matt. 5, 6, 7; Mark 
4; John 14, 15) ; from books and from persons and things, (Luke 4, 
6, 13, 17; Matt. 21:16; Mark 12; John 10). He impressed by swift 
sentences and by careful exposition, (note the condensed epigrammatic 
beatitudes, which by their very form win attention, and compare them 
with the ultra-concrete teaching of Luke 18 and the expository method 
of Luke 8) ; by metaphor, parable, allegory, and choice illustrations ; 
(Matt. 5, 13, 6:22, 13, 21; Luke 10; John 10); and especially by 
applying everyday matters and incidents that were easily grasped 
and were calculated to clear away any mystery or mysticism, (Matt. 
I3:33ff.; Mark I2:42ff.). 



NEW PRINCIPLES ■ 169 

tical applications that it was essentially new. There was thus 
infinite scope also for method. 

Qualities of the teacher. — Coming now to the character- 
istics of the teacher and his method in greater detail, these 
qualities stand out : — 

1. Personal Power. — Power that comes from conscious 
union with the highest in the universe, so that the two become 
one indivisible working force. 4 This gives inspiration. As an 
element in teaching it makes a trinity of teaching power, the 
teacher, God, the pupil being united in the process. There 
is a reaching out on one's own level to serve human interests, 
and a reaching up. This is a right angle of forces, and the 
resultant is the diagonal that takes the teacher, his service, 
and the objects of his service to a plane above the dead level. 
High aims and high endeavor result. This combination is 
characteristic of all the best teaching the world has seen. 
Called by different names, perhaps, looked at in different ways, 
it is the same thing fundamentally, akin to the spiritual union 
of the Great Teacher and God that is emphasized in the Gos- 
pels. Drop this element in teaching and we sink to the most 
perfunctory and mediocre work. 

2. Knowedge. — Absolute command of the matter to be 
taught. 5 Christ knew Jewish life, literature and tradition. 
Historical allusions were at His command to illustrate His 
points. As compared with those who were supposed to be 
absolute in their mastery of these things He easily showed that 
His knowledge was deeper, broader, keener, and hence richer, 
than that of any of theni. He could outquote any as far as 
concerned accuracy of insight into His quotation, and thus as 

4 Matt. 6, 11:25, I2 ; Luke 10:21; John 1:51, 4, 5, 8, 14:20, 16:32; 
et passim. Note the spirit and confidence of intimate cooperation as 
shown in Matt. 11, John 10, and the sublime homing feeling, instinct 
with inspiration, that is inherent in the always beautiful " Our 
Father," (Matt. 6), and My Father's house, (John 14). 

5 Matt. 5, 12, 15, 19, 22; Luke 11, 13, 14, 15, 17; et passim. 

No passages better illustrate His commanding knowledge and insight 
than Matt. 5 and 6, where He repeatedly quotes ("Ye have heard how 
it hath been said," etc.), and immediately illumines the quotation by 
the most appreciative interpretation, " But I say unto you, love your 
enemies," etc. Compare also His absolute mastery of the spirit and 
letter of the great Book of Knowledge in silencing the superficial argu- 
ment of a sect (Matt. 22). 



i;o THE HIGH SCHOOL 

far as concerned a just estimate of values in quotation. He 
could quote more aptly, because He not only knew more fully 
the points at issue, but saw more clearly the real significance 
of the words He used. No surface application, no quibbling 
would He countenance. He immeasurably supassed the Jew- 
ish masters in their own specialty. His power to relate a bit 
of learning to the great whole of life broadened and supported 
His knowledge, so that the narrow application faded before 
the larger one (see Mark 10). This sweep of vision placed 
Him beyond the bounds of the ordinary quoter whom He met. 

In this connection it is interesting to note that He was a 
student of marked ability. Among the very few references to 
His early life two deal with this side of His nature. I. He 
studied and discussed with doctors. 2. He " increased in wis- 
dom " as He increased in stature. We may infer that He 
gained much from quiet thought and reflection. He got at the 
real heart of things. In all this He was a model for teachers, 
though in much of it He has had few followers. 

3. Insight into men and things. — He had an equally won- 
derful knowledge of men and things* — insight we might better 
call it. He appreciated the condition in which He found a 
pupil and built on the pupil's power and interests from the 
point He had already reached, and thus built confidently and 
unerringly. The value of this knowledge of the human sub- 
ject, in addition to that of the culture subject, has been largely 
neglected, or recognized in a dilettante and partial manner. 
The matter has received more attention in recent years and 
is to-day regarded by a few as worthy of scientific treatment 
and as one of the most important conditions of good teaching. 
It is beyond question that without this knowledge, which the 
Gospels illustrate most pointedly, no teaching worthy of the 
name is possible. Child-study, or better pupil-study, had its 
origin in the Gospels. 

If it be true that Christ's immediate and closest disciples 

6 Matt. 5, II, 12, 26; Luke 7, 10:25, 13, 15; John 1, 6, 8; et passim. 

Note particularly His judgment as to John (Matt. 11); Nicodemus 
(John 3) ; Simon (Luke 7) ; Herod (Luke 13) ; the Pharisees, (Matt. 
5 and 6). Conf. Matt. 16 and John 13 for other evidences. Note also 
the various parables whose very point depends upon accurate and 
appreciative knowledge of things and apt application of this knowledge. 



NEW PRINCIPLES 171 

were adolescents, we have still stronger evidence of His knowl- 
edge of men. Adolescents are most easily stimulated and 
inspired by altruistic principles, and attach themselves ardently 
to causes, when rightly approached. 

4. Vital grasp of the law of apperception. — The point 
just noted is closely related to the principle that has some- 
times been called apperception. From the pupil's point of view 
it is based on past experience. From the teacher's standpoint 
it is based on knowledge of his pupils. No one ever used this 
principle or denned it so aptly as Christ, — " to him that hath 
shall be given . . . ; from him that hath not shall be taken even 
that which he seemeth to have." 7 Not merely was He careful 
to build on some basal thought when at hand ; when not at hand 
He awakened it. Discussion, which He frequently excited, 
reinforced it. He had power to stimulate thought and to make 
it intense. Many passages finely illustrate the principle, but 
especially the episode in which the lawyer came to Him for 
instruction (Luke io), 8 for it impresses two points connected 
with our topic : 

(a). Christ brought vividly before the lawyer, or rather 
led him to bring vividly before himself, what he already knew 
and actively believed, — believed with an intensity produced by 
the warm sentiment of Jewish tradition and the thought of an 
honest and inquiring mind. 

(b). Christ did not give any new points till the man had 
an opportunity to think, — till he actually felt and expressed 
the desire for something more, — and He skilfully placed him 
where he had this opportunity to feel, and feel in something 
more than a superficial manner. 

The general principle of apperception, which involves inter- 
est, is the key to modern pedagogy. There must be some basis 
for appreciation and interpretation, or nothing results. A vig- 
orous germ of thought that is one's own grows under direction, 

T Matt. 25:29. 

8 Illustrations of this same principle are found in abundance. See 
Matt. 5-8 (several passages), et passim. Some notable illustrations of 
fine apperception building are His teaching episodes with Nicodemus 
and the woman at the well, (John 3 and 4) ; the parables, (Matt. 13) ; 
His cautionary lesson as to the Pharisees. (Matt. 16) ; His interpreta- 
tion of the ideas "mother and brethren," (Matt. I2:46ff.). 



172 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

and may even be transformed without friction. A foreign 
thought dies. 

Following this pedagogical plan, Christ, by a natural process, 
built from the germ of thought that He used as His founda- 
tion to constantly broader thought and principles. He had 
power also to present the subject from many points of view, 
so that the truth could flash from many sides. Many might 
thus see one flash; some would see many. The principle 
requires such application when there is but one pupil, much 
more when there are many. 

But there is a still higher application of the law than any thus 
far touched upon. Christ used it in His teaching so extensively 
that it gives tone to His whole method. How should He lead 
men to some conception of God — lead them from the familiar 
to the mysterious unknown, from the primitive horizon to 
larger and remoter horizons? Man must be interested in fel- 
low man, must live in him, must serve him; must appreciate 
nature and feel it; must see God in both man and in nature 
before he can venture intelligently into remoter regions. He 
must go step by step apperceptively from the near to the remote. 
Hence it was through the conception of fatherhood that Jesus 
led men to the Father, — not in that way exclusively, but in that 
way conspicuously. Have we not tried partly to reverse the 
process and partly to check the process at inopportune stages ? 
Adolescence is religious vantage ground. Christ knew how to 
use it. 

5. Sympathetic contact. — Closely associated with what 
has just been said is Christ's power to come into close and sym- 
pathetic contact with His pupils, 9 meeting interest, desire, earn- 
estness, and appreciating insight on their part, whether it had 
to do with the main point at issue, or with some related point 
that He could use to lead up to His object. Interest, sympathy, 
love, however, were mingled with broad, keen thought, unhesi- 
tating knowledge, strong attitudes. 

9 Matt. 6, 8, 11, 15; Mark 10, 12; Luke 2, 9, 13, 19; John 11, 13; 
et saepe. _ Two of the best illustrations are his contact with Zacchaeus 
and his intimate teaching of Nicodemus, (Luke 19; John 3). Pro- 
fessor Palmer's first qualification of an ideal teacher, — an aptitude for 
vicariousness,— - is shown at its highest in Jesus. 



NEW PRINCIPLES 173 

6. Master of pedagogy of interest. — A further word 
should be given to one point just noted. Jesus was a master 
of the pedagogy of interest. 10 " He knew how to use it and how 
to develop it. No studied plan, i. e., no studied series of les- 
sons, or course, is manifest, but, by plying the principle of 
interest, as occasion showed it to Him or gave Him the condi- 
tions for germinating it, He impressed on men His most insist- 
ent thought. Education is barren and dreary when we desert 
this principle and pin our faith to formal training. It is the 
binding and unifying force in all educational laws and prin- 
ciples. We have wasted time by seeking and using something 
else in its place. 

He not only knew how to use interest in the one to be 
taught; He recognized interest on the part of others. He 
welcomed the third party in education. 11 Isolation of school 
would be farthest from His thought, if He were present in our 
system. Correlation of school and home would grow from 
this attitude. 

7. The individual, not the subject, the center. — All this 
indicates that He had not so much a subject to teach as an indi- 
vidual to be developed. The subject is best served through 
individuals. If a teacher can choose the stimulus best adapted 
to the individual and his needs, can make the right impression 
on the delicate nerve mechanism of the pupil, and thus rouse 
self-activity to work in promising directions under wise guid- 
ance, he has the conditions for real educational work. Such 
power had Christ. It appears everywhere in His teaching epi- 
sodes. The individual is thus the starting point, the center, 

10 Matt. 19; Mark 1; Luke 4, 13; John 4, 8, 10. 

Various illustrations noted on previous pages show this. Jesus 
projected interest and developed interest. Everywhere He had in- 
terested and attentive pupils. Even those who were not in sympathy 
with Him showed one edge of interest intensely (Matt. 19). 

11 Matt. 9 ; Mark 7, 8 ; Luke 5. No incidents in the Gospels are more 
interesting than those that present Andrew and Peter, Philip and 
Nathaniel, (John 1) ; parents bringing children (Luke 18: 15) ; friends 
bringing a sick friend (Luke 5 : 18) ; the woman sceptic, after her 
interest was aroused, summoning the villagers (John 4). In edu- 
cation not merely a good conductor for the transmission of power 
and interest, but also interested agents to bring to^ the center of 
power and interest those that would otherwise miss it, are essential 
factors, if ideas are to reach larger masses most effectively. 



174 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

and also the end in view. How different this from the average 
teaching of succeeding centuries ! Again, supposing His 
apostles were adolescents, how finely adapted was His teach- 
ing to that age. Great inspiring truths, rather than petty- 
details, appeal to the adolescent mind. Stimulating think- 
ing in elementary lines suits the case better than the dry 
forms of abstract teaching. The Gospels are full of these 
things. 

8. Objective work. — But another principle of method is 
needed to give full effect to the principles and qualities already 
noted, to provide a psychologic point of contact between pupil 
and teacher. Teaching may slip by a pupil in spite of strong 
personal qualities, if the material of instruction (we call it 
study-content) is too remote and abstract or too extensive and 
detailed. To clarify the teaching of a new topic the teacher 
must first of all get away from the abstract and formal. He 
must come within the experience and development of the pupil. 
Objective contact with a new idea is absolutely essential to suc- 
cess. Nothing interests and stimulates the pupil more and 
clears the way better than to bring him face to face with the 
object that embodies the new idea, directly, if possible, if not, 
indirectly through some device. Then the pupil really thinks 
because the point at issue is within his power. He sees ; he 
knows. Jesus was a master in objective teaching a millennium 
and a half before it took effect with the " Reformers " in edu- 
cation, who imperfectly caught up the idea that the Master 
Teacher had pushed into the foreground long before. With 
them it was a vision to be worked out in a more or less crude 
and labored way. With Him it was an intuition working itself 
naturally and effectively. Everywhere in the Gospels we find 
Jesus introducing something objective to make His thought 
plain. Many times since He pointed the way method has 
become so abstract, teachers have so selected study-material 
of education from an adult point of view, have so far trans- 
cended the experience and development of pupils, — in short, 
have come so far from appreciating real child and adolescent 
life, and have so far sacrificed objective training to so-called 
formal discipline at a critical age, that education has lost a very 
appreciable part of its meaning and effect. Every time reform 



NEW PRINCIPLES 175 

has taken hold of the educational process it has pushed it 
toward the objective and intensely human ideals of Jesus. 12 

Illustration. — A special form of Jesus' objective teach- 
ing is seen in His marvelous illustrations.™ These illustra- 
tions through their simplicity and directness lead straight to 
the idea and make it plain. They both illumine the thought 
that Jesus is trying to present and focus the light, so that they 
not only make clear but excite curiosity to go further. 14 
Hence they add a new force to method by putting thought- 
power into larger action, making pupils active agents toward 
the larger consummation of the lesson. 15 

These principles and elements of method, which have appli- 
cation in education without limit of time or space, clarify 
teaching, because they open the windows of instruction and 
let the light in. They are thus the means of giving real effi- 
cacy to knowledge and the other teacher-qualities that we have 
noticed. They give easy access to the ideas to be inculcated 
and the thoughts to be stirred, so that one is put simply and 
clearly on the highway to truth; more than this, they inspire 
initiative and supplementary thinking along the road. 

9. Compass. — But the compass of a lesson conditions 
the value of objective teaching. It may be so great that the 
child's activities are discouraged and lost. It may be so small 
that they are not given due exercise. It is noticeable that in 
Jesus' lessons there was a single point so simple and clear, so 
free from hampering and befogging detail, that it could not 
slip the mind. And Jesus made the point so big, impressive, 
suggestive, that it not only set thought at work but gave it an 
inviting field for excursions beyond the limits of the lesson. 
What a rebuke for our modern school courses, so overcrowded 
with detail, in both secular and Bible schools, — courses too 
often dictated by adult rather than child interest. 

Strong closing — Climax. — The effect of this fine propor- 

12 Examples of objective teaching are found everywhere in the Gos- 
pels. Something objective will be found in every teaching exercise of 
Jesus. For prominent examples see Matt. 6:28; 12:46-50; Mark 
12:13-19; Luke 7:36-50; John 10. 

13 Taken up from another view-point on page 177. 

14 E.g., the "widow's mite" (Mark 12) ; the well (John 4); wheat 
and tares (Matt. 13) ; good Samaritan (Luke 10). 
15 See parables like "the sower" (Matt. 13). 



176 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

tion observed by Jesus in the extent and content of a lesson 
was enhanced by the climax. The close of His lesson was a 
psychological one, not a mechanical one that our method so 
often involves. It was not an end, but a stopping place for the 
teacher just where the main thought was at its strongest, not 
exhausted but still vital enough to attract further activity of 
the pupil, and well within his range because of the wonderfully 
vivid and effective initiation that Jesus had already supplied. 16 
Given such an initiation the mind may go on and on. With- 
out it the mind takes a more or less quiescent attitude or comes 
to a distressing state of bewilderment. A teacher need not 
exhaust a subject to be thorough. His chief claim to genius 
lies in his ability to leave something for the pupil to do by 
himself and to put him on vantage ground to do it. Jesus 
shows here one of His strongest teaching qualities. 

io. Power to universalize. — Power to universalize 17 is 
conspicuous. This gives His teachings their broad power and 
applies them to all time. His presentation of general prin- 
ciples that carry their own detailed application is found every- 
where. The Greeks had, beyond all other nations, the power 
to generalize and idealize and then objectify their ideas in the 
eyes of the Greek race. No one ever showed such power to 
generalize from life and concretely picture as is found in the 
parable of the pharisee and the publican, which is a classic 
among realistic presentations of generalizations. 18 

People have been misled because certain civic and personal 
evils were not even mentioned, much less scored by Jesus. 
This is a striking tribute to the universality and immortality 
of His teachings. He developed and enunciated principles 
that would destroy every specific evil known or to be known 
by man. 

16 See the story of the laborers (Matt. 20) ; the Lawyer's question 
(Luke 10:25-37). 

17 Matt. 5, 8; Luke 11, 18; John 4; et saepe. 

18 This is a generalization, not a particular case, as its form may 
suggest to a hasty observer. We may compare also other incidents 
equally striking — the exposition of neighborliness in the "Good Sa- 
maritan" episode, (Luke 10) ; of the principle of giving in the " wid- 
ow's mite", (Mark 12), an example of swift seizing of a chance in- 
cident and turning it into a most vivid lesson. Again note his dis- 
crimination in service seen in the tribute scene, (Matt. 22). Matt. 6 



NEW PRINCIPLES 177 

No quibbling. — It is also to be said, taking a little dif- 
ferent point of view, that pettiness had no place. Christ struck 
at the real matter and discarded the side issues. 19 Educa- 
tional padding here receives no encouragement, but this does 
not apply to accessories that forward the pedagogical process 
and lend it vividness and interest. 

11. Language power. — Another quality, one that has 
been the ambition of teachers for ages, was supreme in Christ, 
though it has received but partial recognition. This was His 
language power. 20 In the first place we are attracted by the 
clarity, 21 the deliberate force, and the perfect form of His lan- 
guage. This in itself is a rare accomplishment. Again we 
marvel at His power of illustration. Illustrative language is 
found in great variety and shows marvelous command. 22 His 
illustrations themselves are unique. They are familiar, but a 
freshness of insight accompanies them that makes them new. 
Sometimes they argue their own point, so aptly are they chosen. 
It is important also to notice that He uses series of illustra- 
tions that give the means of reaching many different types of 
mind at once. 23 They are always to the point, and the point is 
a pivotal one. But this is only one side of language power. 
We find besides a frequent use of epigrammatic or apothegmatic 
language, 24 which arrests attention and excites thought, and 
thus is an important, though nowadays too little used instru- 

and similar chapters contain various striking generalizations put in 
striking form. 

19 See His impatience at quibbles, trifles, and superficialities of His 
time, and His swift striking at the main issue in Matt. 19 : 16 ff. ; 23 : 25 ; 
Luke 18 : 18. He had no use for mere externals, the " outside of the 
platter," the wordy prayer and the prayer of words, the trifling de- 
tails of rules that miss the real point, the " Lord, Lord " ; He sought 
the heart of things. See Matt. 7:21, Matt. 25, etc. 

20 In the Gospels passim. A good illustration is Matt. 6, Luke 12. 
This appears even in translation. The original always enhances a 
language characteristic. 

21 This was partly because He spoke in the " vernacular." This does 
not mean that He spoke in the dialect of the people merely, but that 
he used their simple, everyday vocabulary. 

22 E. g., Luke 10, 18, et saepe. His lessons are filled with illustra- 
tions of various types and from various sources, — simile, metaphor, 
parable, and plain illustration. 

23 See Matt. 13 ; Mark 4. 

24 See Sermon on the Mount ; also Matt. 20 : 16. Illustrations occur 
everywhere. 



178 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

ment in teaching. Again there is a frequent recurrence of 
suggestion 25 in place of definite statements, which also is a part 
of good educational economics. It gives scope for reflection, 
an opportunity for personal development of germinal thoughts, 
and so produces intellectual and spiritual fibre. 

Dialectic is a special type of language power. It was a 
method, a typical educational contribution, of the best educated 
race of the time, as we have seen. 26 But Jesus had a dialectic 
swifter and keener than any yet seen. 27 His power of ques- 
tioning and of logical investigation was such that He could 
strike at once the main point and make it clear. No round- 
about or antagonistic series of steps was needed. One or two 
questions sufficed and yet they upheaved a truth that was clear 
and powerful, — no trivial truth, but a massive one. It is well 
suggested that He asked " great questions." Minor interroga- 
tions did not encumber nor overshadow those that went to the 
heart of things. 

And Jesus had command of beautiful language. He could 
be poetical in the finest way. 28 He could reach truth by the 
swift inspiration of esthetics and rhythm, as well as by the 
more deliberate method of prose. 

This language power left little room for formal didactic 
teaching, and immeasurably added to His teaching power. 

12. Breadth — adaptation. — There is another important 
quality that is essential for a strong teacher. Christ showed 
that He commanded all the relations of life, and so was a mas- 
ter in influence. In this He strikingly contrasts Himself with 
the partial qualifications of some, probably many, teachers. 
He could give and receive. He could command and obey. 
Service was a central thought in is creed. 29 He was thus a 
fully developed, well-rounded teacher. 30 

25 A good example of suggestion is John 2 : 19. Perhaps a better one 
is Matt. 6 : 22. Various good examples are found in Matt. 5, 6, 7, and 
in Luke 10 : 30 ft". 

26 See Chapters V and VI. 

27 Matt. 6; 12: 11; Luke 10:36 ("Which one of these three thinkest 
thou was neighbor? ") ; 13 : 15 ; 14 : 5 ; John 7 : 23 ; 21 : 15. 

28 E. g., " Consider the lilies," Luke 12 : 27. 

29 See Luke 2 ; Matt. 25. 

30 We here analyze Christ as a teacher. This best makes Him a 
leader and an example. — brings Him into closest touch with teachers. 



NEW PRINCIPLES 179 

13. Poise. — Nothing is more noticeable than the quali- 
ties that may be summed up in the term poise, zl and nothing in 
the teacher's equipment is so valuable, so telling in all the deal- 
ings of education. Poise not only gives time to work, allow- 
ing educational forces to perform their legitimate functions, 
but it removes unfortunate conditions that are the source of 
friction and destroy relations. It thus tends to avert ill-con- 
sidered action and views. It gives thought free play. It puts 
everybody and everything in a position to realize the best. It 
recognizes the educational value of difficulty and opposition. 
In this quality are gathered calmness, dignity, confidence that 
begets confidence, and a pedagogical patience that is careful 
not to excite premature development, a patience that regulates 
the pace of events in accordance with the nature of the case. 
Compare Christ's calmness with the flurry and perturbation 
of His disciples on different occasions. 32 Even when He seems 
to break His calm we find the same power, — a kind of delibera- 
tion that finds and emphasizes the vital point at issue, rather 
than excites a surface indignation. The former wins, the lat- 
ter loses, whether in social contact or in school discipline. 
There is also a noticeable absence of the spectacular, a constant 
sinking of self below the truth that the self is presenting, an 
attitude that gives real power to truth and to teaching. 33 

14. Dynamic qualities. — Devotion, persistence, fearless- 
ness, earnestness gave point and force and steadiness to all His 

Such analysis, however, is consistent with all theology, and it does 
not detract from, nor offer any impediment to, analysis from any other 
view-point. 

31 Matt. 4 ; Luke 4 ; John 2 ; et passim. It is perhaps best expressed 
in the parable of the tares, " Let both grow together till the harvest," 
because Jesus here not only shows teaching-calm and poise, but per- 
haps quite as significantly indicates His belief in the necessity of diffi- 
culty and opposing ideas in developing power. Poise is again shown 
in the poetic passage, Matt. 6 : 25. ff. 

32 Compare the impulse to vengeance on the part of James and John 
with Jesus' calmness (Luke 9:54); the perturbation of the chosen 
pupils under stress of tempest with the self possession and naturalness 
of Jesus (Mark 4: 35 if.). Compare the striking passages of Luke 
22 : 50 ff. and Mark 14 : 50 ff., describing scenes accompanying the ar- 
rest of Jesus, and note how this calmness endured in times of great- 
est stress, when others gave way entirely. The climax came in the 
final scene with its " Father, forgive them." 

33 Matt. 6:4; I2:i4ff.; 16:20; 26:39. 



i8o THE HIGH SCHOOL 

teaching, or rather they were its sureties. Examples of these 
traits occurred frequently. An appreciative study of them 
should banish from teaching all superficialities, all temporizing, 
all compromising, and give to it a rich genuineness consonant 
with its high ends. 

15. Various passages in the Gospels tell us of solitary 
hours and temporary withdrawal 34 in out-of-the-way places. 
In spite of His effort to secure quiet meditation, however, 
crowds sometimes gathered and even camped in these places 
for the sake of teaching and help, and because of the attraction 
of Christ himself, — His magnetism, to use a rather hackneyed 
and ill-defined term. Later monastic and hermit life made 
permanent what was occasional and temporary with Christ. 
Jesus' work was emphatically in the midst of life, and the soli- 
tary hours were tributary to it. 

16. Impressive personality. — The qualities thus briefly 
enumerated, with others more or less definable, were elements 
in a strong and striking personality that drew and influenced. 
Personality is not a simple thing or a single power, though it 
may be regarded substantially as such by those who do not stop 
to analyze. As a matter of fact it is not necessary or desirable 
for those who are being influenced to analyze at the moment. 
They need only to feel. But if one is to develop power, 
analysis is necessary in order to direct effort productively. 
Analysis here reveals more impressively the personality of the 
teacher. Personality wins. It supports and renders effective 
other teaching qualities. 

Implications. — To summarize some of the suggestions 
of this study it appears that new forces were prominent, calcu- 
lated to change, 1, the form of schools; 2, the curriculum and 
method; 3, the aim and the scope of the school's ministries. 
We have potentially universal education. We have potentially 
also a broad and generous curriculum. In the direction of 
method the pedagogical principles involved bring in the best of 
modern method and tend to emphasize the true direction of 
education, — from the human subject to the culture subject, thus 
making the pupil, rather than any " study," the center of 
thought. We find also substantial ground for urging the study 

34 Matt. 4, 14 ; Mark 6 ; Luke 4, 9 ; John 8. Examples are frequent. 



NEW PRINCIPLES 181 

of the psychology of childhood and adolescence. The peda- 
gogy of the Gospels enforces scholarship as well, — knowledge 
of the full meaning and possibilities of the subject to be 
taught, 35 including a knowledge of its psychology. This gives 
us a third psychology. Interpreting the educational principles 
of Jesus generously and genuinely we have all modern educa- 
tion. This is literal fact, not fancy, to one who will take the 
pains to examine. 

Partial application of His principles in the period follow- 
ing Jesus. — Now it was natural, because evolutional, that 
at first the new forces should be but partially appreciated and 
imperfectly interpreted, — that only one side of man's spirit 
should be made the object of effort, and that the curriculum 
should be correspondingly narrow. Pedagogy would be still 
less adequately developed. Old methods would be less obnox- 
ious than old matter. Men have generally thought more of 
the what than of the how. The most available educational 
method that suggested itself would be likely to be seized upon. 
Men had little inclination to think along pedagogical lines. 
Still less did they care to study men. To know that man had a 
soul and that an institution was to be subserved and forwarded 
was enough. Many of the plain suggestions of the Gospel as to 
pedagogy were therefore to wait long for just recognition. 

Even this partial interpretation slow. — The conquest of 
even the narrow interpretation of the new ideas was slow. 
The first step will be the subject of the next chapter. But 
before taking up this topic it will be well to glance at the atti- 
tude of the Fathers who were a connecting link between the 
old and the first settled forms of the new. 

Pedagogy of the Christian Fathers. 

The fathers looked both ways. — It would be natural to 
expect that the Christian Fathers would look both ways in edu- 
cation. Old associations would cling, but new religious affilia- 
tions and new inspiration would color them and in time modify 
them. 

35 This is a three-fold knowledge, — knowledge of the facts compre- 
hended in a subject, a knowledge of the history of a subject, and ability 
to adapt a subject to different ages and conditions. 



182 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

The Fathers were regularly educated in the old Greek and 
Roman schools, which were found everywhere in the Empire. 
They studied, in secondary and higher work, grammar, rhetoric, 
literature, dialectics and philosophy, music, geometry, astron- 
omy, natural philosophy, architecture and jurisprudence. 
Rhetoric was particularly prominent. Sophist ideas that 
originated in Greece were still found. In Roman schools and 
schools that followed Roman tradition, Quintilian's pedagogy 
was, of course, still a power. 

Policy of the Fathers as to learning — The new learn- 
ing. — The majority of the Fathers, particularly those from the 
East and from Alexandria, kept alive the old studies, but they 
added to them studies connected with the new religion, to which 
they showed great devotion and in which they were often volu- 
minous writers. Much has been made of the opposition of 
Jerome, Tertullian, and Augustine to classical literature, and 
they certainly did express their disapproval; but at the same 
time it must be noted that these same Fathers, or some of them, 
may be used also in support of the old learning 36 guided and 
regulated. One of the strongest indications of opposition is 
found in "Apostolic Constitutions" of the fourth century in 
such directions as this : 

" Refrain from all the writings of the heathen, for what hast thou 
to do with strange discourses, laws, and false prophets, which in 
truth turn aside from the faith those that are weak in understand- 
ing." 

The interdiction does not, however, seem to have been fully 
carried out in the lives of a majority of the Fathers. 

Results. — The old curriculum was still in great favor 
among the educated classes generally, and was not rejected, or 
was definitely favored, by a majority of those most intimately 
concerned with leadership in the new order of religion. But 
while decided opposition to classical literature showed itself in 
strong places, so that " Pagan " learning in time came under 
the ban and Christian Latin literature came to the front, too 
much has been made of this disfavor. Other causes con- 
tributed to this retreat of learning. The ban was official, but 

36 West, Alcuin, 17. 



NEW PRINCIPLES 183 

was probably not universally active, nor was it a finality. The 
votaries of classical learning never ceased, and substantial 
schools continued the Roman tradition to more favorable times. 
New forms of education. — But a study of the lives of the 
Fathers 37 indicates plainly that new educational forms were 
coming in, and that new schools were germinating. The terms 
catechetical, catechumen, reader in Christian service, and 
church teacher occur and are very significant. There are many 
references also to ascetic and monastic life that was gaining 
great influence and making rapid headway. The first mon- 
astery in the West was established by St. Martin, about the 
middle of the fourth century. 

37 See Farrar's Lives of the Fathers, which is full of allusions to 
new forms and ideas and full also of evidence that the Fathers got 
the best in the old Greek and Roman Schools. The feelings of the 
Fathers, whether in opposition or favor, or in alluring memories, are 
not difficult to find or appreciate. 



XI 

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 

Tendencies of the new era. — The spirit of the new era 
on which we are entering tended to revolution and reorganiza- 
tion, not of a cataclysmic sort, but quiet, steady, patient, per- 
vasive, in accord with its motto of peace. Relations of capital 
and labor, ideals and practices of professional life, principles 
of national progress, ideas of philanthropy — society as a 
whole, — were to feel and respond to the new order. The 
theory and practice of education, as the fundamental agency 
for working out these changes, must themselves catch the spirit 
of the new force. This was the work of the first Christian 
centuries. 

Conditions and forces, i. The Roman Grammar School. 
— The conditions are plain. On the one hand we have the 
Roman Grammar school, which had adopted and adapted all 
of Greek education that appealed to the West, in matter, 
method, and ideals. It was a school marvelously perfect for 
the times in organization, method, and form. It was dis- 
tinctively Roman, charged with Roman genius, a notable illus- 
tration of Roman executive power, — one of the type schools 
in the history of education. It was the embodiment of the 
national conscience and ideals, the darling of national solici- 
tude and pride. As the institutes of law became a model for 
Christendom in one direction, the " institutes of education," as 
embodied in the Grammar School, became a model for schools 
of succeeding ages. In Rome, not in Greece, was the parent 
school of the West, as we have already noted. 

Spirit of the new. — On the other hand there was the 
spirit of the new times whose ideal was growth, not acquisi- 
tion, service, not domination, deeds, not words, gentle but per- 
sistent persuasion from within, not oratorical brilliance and 

184 



THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 185 

marshalled argument from without, — though it was capable 
of using and tempering all means. 

Thus two ideas, that of the old Greco-Roman schools, and 
that of the pedagogy of the Gospels, were at work, in part 
influencing one another, in part antagonistic. 

Results of the educational revolution. — Two courses are 
open to revolutionary ideas, first, the making of new forms with 
which to propagate the new, free from all contamination with 
the old ; second, the use and transformation of the old. As is 
always the case, the new times at first took both these courses, 
according as they appealed to groups and individuals. Thus 
we have new forms of schools, and old forms modified by 
new ideas. 

Various classes of people as related to the new religion. — 
It is very interesting to note the variety and kind of variety 
that existed in these transition years. The very growth of the 
new faith made variety inevitable. As Christianity became 
popular men attached themselves to it with varying degrees of 
intensity. Some entered seriously and with full purpose into 
the new. Some affiliated in greater or less degree with the 
Christians, but attached themselves more lightly to the new 
religion. Outside of these were a wavering class and a class 
as yet untouched. 

Educational tendencies of different classes. — Some of 
these classes clung to the old school through sentiment and 
habit. Some, with self-denying will, abandoned habit and 
developed a sentiment for a distinctly new school. This applies 
to both form and matter, particularly matter. Method is im- 
personal and adapted to new as well as to old; the most that 
could be done here was to simplify, or to revert to a more 
primitive type. The early Christians did both. Elaboration 
was foreign to their ideal. 

New subject matter for the schools. — As to material for 
study, the Christians, using old tools in new quarries, produced 
something adapted to the occasion. The Christian faith became 
a recognized branch of study, and a new literature on Chris- 
tian subjects came into existence. It possessed much literary 
merit because produced by scholarly Christian Fathers who 
had received their training in the old classical schools. It was 



186 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

adapted to both elementary and secondary instruction and 
speedily found its way into the curriculum in place of classical 
literature, or in conjunction with it. Alexandria, the greatest 
center of learning and investigation in the early centuries of our 
era, even gave the new schools a Christian philosophy. Its 
library encouraged learning. Its great school was the melting 
pot of Oriental and classical religions out of which came Neo- 
Platonism and Gnosticism. Naturally enough, it was in Alex- 
andria that Christianity became a subject of philosophical in- 
vestigation. A Christian and quasi-Christian philosophy was 
thus at hand to fill the place of that which Quintilian had in his 
curriculum, and to exercise the minds that craved this form of 
thinking. 

Seven classes of schools. — The whole situation would in- 
dicate that the interaction between the old Grammar School, 
with its firm place in the affections of all educated people, and 
the new Christian forces that were rapidly supplying new mate- 
rial to give tone to old curricula, must have been vigorous and 
prolific. As a matter of fact, to meet the needs of a transition 
period and to serve the various shades of Christian thought 
and purpose, we find seven different classes of schools, besides 
several sub-classes. Only the most typical will be described 
here. 1 

The Grammar School type persisted. — The genius of the 
schools of early Christian centuries was Quintilian. The old 
Grammar School, or the Grammar School manned by Chris- 
tian teachers, was probably the most conspicuous school of the 
time. This was natural and inevitable. Schools of this type 
were particularly numerous and active in Italy and Gaul. 2 

1 A full list will be found in the Appendix. 

2 At the end of the fourth century Roman-Hellenic schools were 
still scattered over the provinces. Most of them had died out by the 
time of Augustine's death. Intellectual activity continued longest in the 
East. Roman traditions remained vigorous longest in Gaul. Laurie, 
Rise, and Const, of Univ., 13-19. 

It has been customary to speak of the Roman schools as ending or be- 
ing suppressed. As a matter of fact, many of them never ended ; they 
grew and changed with the times. 

In. the time of Cassiodorus secular letters were still taught by 
lay teachers, probably the successors of the Grammarians of the Em- 
pire. There is evidence that such teachers continued through the 
Middle Ages. Patherius, about 900 a. d v writes, that in addition to those 



THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 187 

Very early the new Christian forces took possession of these 
schools and school forms of ancient education. They did 
more, — they gave new life through new ideas and a stronger 
purpose. For a time Julian succeeded in revising the teach- 
ing force in these schools and banishing Christian teachers ; but 
this was a mere episode in their history and could not long 
check the tendency of the times ; the past could not be rehabili- 
tated. 3 

New school agencies. The Catechumen and Catechetical 
schools. — But the new religious and social awakening must 
have a special agency of its own for studying and settling its 
fundamental ideas. It secured this in the Catechumen school, 
planned first for adults and later for children. Its funda- 
mental purpose was instruction in the typical principles and 
forms of Christianity; even when the elements of secular let- 
ters were taught, it was doubtless for the furthering of the new 
doctrines. 4 The new times secured a special agency also in the 
Catechetical school, a high school established for the same 
general purpose as the Catechumen school. It was proposed 
to make converts the intellectual equals of others. The new 
school agency appealed to, and gave scope to, culture activities 
of intellectual centers, beginning at Alexandria. It was a close 
copy of Greek schools rather than Roman, but was pervaded 
by a Christian spirit and purpose. 5 In time it yielded to Roman 
influence and took the form of the Roman Grammar school, 

who attended Episcopal and Monastic schools there were those 
who " Apud quemlibet sapientem conversati sunt." Clark, Latin of the 
Middle Ages and Renaissance, 54 f. 

a In prohibiting Christians from teaching rhetoric and grammar, 
Julian said, that men who exalted the merit of implicit faith were unfit 
to claim the advantages of science. He hoped to paganize those who 
attended his revised schools and to insure the inadequate training 
of teachers who were taught elsewhere, thinking that an inferior class 
of teachers incapable of training Christian students to meet the learn- 
ing of the grammar-school youth, would take the place of Christian 
teachers who under previous educational organization " possessed an 
adequate share of the learning and eloquence of the age." See Gib- 
bon, Decline and Fall of Rom. Emp., Chapter XXIII. 

4 Note the " first Christian common school, established by Protogenes, 
in the second century, to teach reading, writing, texts of Scripture, and 
psalm singing. Seeley, Hist, of Educ, 105. 

5 Davidson, Hist, of Educ, 121 ff., gives a very interesting and ap- 
preciative account of this school. A genuine Socratic method was 
prominent. 



188 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

reduced in scope and thoroughness, and modified by Chris- 
tianity. 

Domestic education. — The uncertainty that has been re- 
ferred to, the dissatisfaction with prevailing schools, and a feel- 
ing of danger from them, seem to have suggested another solu- 
tion of the educational problem, — domestic education. Many 
a Christian home made sure of Christian influence by home 
instruction. 6 

Three types.— Most of the schools of the period differed 
in form, in organization, and sometimes even in purpose. 
They may, however, be classified under three types: — I, The 
old Roman type; 2, the Roman type modified by Christian 
studies and teaching, with its correlative type, the Catechetical 
school ; 3, the purely Christian school, seen in the Catechumen 
school with simple religious curriculum. 

A coming school. — But there was a fourth type that be- 
gan to be visible on the educational horizon, and for this reason 
was not so characteristic of the age as were the others. In its 
elementary form it was similar to other schools of the time in 
organization and purpose; in its secondary form it was an 
impoverished counterpart of other secondary schools. It was 
distinguished from others more particularly, however, from 
the fact that it was absolutely removed from the contaminating 
influence of the world, being a part of a community life sepa- 
rated from ordinary social contact and devoted to religious 
cultivation and contemplation. It was the cloister school. 

Method. — The general method of the old secondary 
schools remained in schools of the first and second types ; but 
dictation and memorizing were coming to be more exclusively 
used and there was a tendency to narrow the old learning and 
to condense it in epitomes, as seen in books that became the 
standards for many centuries. 7 Schools of the third type 
brought in the catechetical plan, 8 which has played such an 
important part ever since, so far as the church has regulated 
school pedagogy. It was not new, but was given a new devel- 

6 Amer. Jour, of Educ, 24 : 523. 

7 See Chap. XII. 

8 Question and answer method. Here was the beginning of the 
catechism. 



THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 189 

opment. It had been merely a subordinate device, but it now 
assumed great prominence, in fact was reduced to a science. 9 
On the other hand, the Catechetical school, which belongs under 
type two, and in a way also under type three, gave new promi- 
nence and force to the " Socratic Method." 

Aims. — Aims varied correspondingly. The Grammar 
schools maintained the practical aim of Quintilian without the 
opportunity for practical application that was offered by larger 
political conditions of the earlier day. As already noted, the 
aim was reduced to a striving for formal rhetoric and literary 
form. 1Q Side by side with it was the Christian aim of religious 
instruction for the purpose of establishing the Christian ideal ; 
but soul culture was as yet rather a formal matter, so far as 
schools were concerned. 

Period characterized as formative. — 'All in all we have a 
formative period in which new forces were contending with 
old. The contrasts, as well as the exigencies, of the time may 
be realized by considering on the one hand the work of a 
Julian, who thought he could make things move backward by 
the fiat of a monarch and could thus weaken a vigorous force 
which had many points of appeal, and on the other hand the 
work of an Origen, who brought the highest culture to Chris- 
tian teaching and followed the broad course of the best schools 
of his day ; u or again by considering the classical fervor of a 
Jerome or an Augustine 12 in connection with Christian devo- 
tion, at one period of their lives, and, at another, their renuncia- 
tion (for others) of the same classical delights and their recom- 
mendation of devotion to the new alone; or by noting the 
extended education of most of the Christian Fathers in all that 
the old schools could give, as compared with the meagre instruc- 
tion of the rank and file of the Christians who came under their 
influence, receiving as they did little more than religious instruc- 
tion ; and finally by contrasting the education and the practice 
of Fathers like St. Basil with those of Tertullian. 13 Out of 

9 See West's Alcuin for an example of elaborate catechetical work. 

10 Dill. op. cit., Book V. See Laurie, op. cit., 13. 

11 Amer. Jour, of Educ, 24 : 5, 19-20. 

12 See also Farrar's Lives of the Fathers (Jerome), and Augustine's 
City of God. 

13 Farrar's Lives of the Fathers, Teuffel's Latin Literature, et al. 



190 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

this mixed period of contrasts and contradictions must come a 
crystallization of some sort. Its nature can be divined by 
noticing which forces are most virile and most popular. Real 
life was with the new ideas. The old order now had little 
more than forms whose force had departed. 

Summary. — The early Christian ages therefore defined 
certain ideals and aims of education, but produced no distinc- 
tive secondary school that endured. They were, however, 
working vigorously at the educational problem. A mixed and 
unsettled period it was, in which men were adapting old and 
new to new needs and ideals in various ways and for various 
purposes. The old was declining; a new school form was in 
sight which was almost to clear the field. 

APPENDIX 

SCHOOL FORMS IN EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 

1. Old Roman schools. — Municipal schools supported by the munici- 
pality, or by the municipality and imperial government together. Finally 
the state was the sole authority. They were public schools. There is 
some reference to jobbery in spending public money. These schools 
persisted for a long time. 

2. Private schools similar to I. — Supported by subscriptions and 
managed by private authority, — at least till schools became a part 
of the state. 

They had the old Quintilian curriculum with more emphasis on literary 
study, including grammar and rhetoric. Other studies were subordi- 
nated more than in Quintilian's plan and used for illustrative purposes. 
Quintilian's curriculum was fresh and related vitally to life, real 
and filled with reality. But the curriculum now was largely a matter 
of simple culture, with less connection with public life and no relation 
to free political development. Life and ideals were in Rome's past. 
There was a perverted idea of history; no interest in current history; 
no interest in nature or investigation ; little concern for the fate of 
the Empire, which was constantly threatened and constantly suffering. 
Education was a form and its substance was form, gained through imita- 
tion of the past. Fresh creation was not an object of effort. Roman 
schools were soon in a decadent state verging toward extinction. They 
remained vigorous longer in Gaul than in the Empire generally. (There 
was, however, a freer and more vigorous intellectual life in the church. 
There was interest in history here, but of a rather narrow scope.) 

Method: — The old Grammar method described by Quintilian, but 
more concerned with form. It loaded the memory and strengthened 
the imitative power, instead of stimulating thought and imagination. It 



THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 191 

involved grammatical drill and drill in composition, brilliant rhetorical 
exercises, but no scientific inquiry. 
These schools may be divided again into 

A. Grammar schools taught by adherents of old Roman ideas. 

B. Grammar schools taught by Christians (often perhaps of Class 
2). Christian studies, — patristic literature, etc., — were probably added 
to the course, at least in some cases. 

3. Catechumen school: — 

a. For adults, to train them for the church. 

b. (later). For children, offering reading, writing, christian studies. 
Method : — Catechetical, memorizing. 

About 200 a. d. Protogenes established a school in which reading, 
writing, Scriptures, and psalm-singing were taught. It was called the 
first Christian common school. (Many such schools may have been 
established.) 

4. The Catechetical school of Alexandria, where the trivium and 
geometry, with Christian studies, — patristic literature,etc. — were taught. 
There was also a higher school. Method : — Catechetical and dialectic ; 
lectures; also memorizing. This school was established with the idea 
of educating churchmen in a broader way, and giving them a training 
similar to that of the old school, but added Christian studies. It 
all had in view a fuller grasp of the new faith, and centered in it. It 
was necessary to prepare churchmen to meet their opponents with an 
equal training and on their own ground. 

Origen, a famous teacher here, made much of natural history, mathe- 
matics and astronomy, all leading up to philosophy. Geometry with him 
included geography. Physics, or natural philosophy (a kind of nature 
study), he called physiology. These studies were probably intended 
for higher education, but they included some secondary features. — His 
method was catechetical, dialectic, analytic, experimental. 

The catechetical school appropriately began at Alexandria. It spread 
rapidly, especially at Episcopal seats. It continued for ages, though 
under another name. 

5. Christian private schools, having the old curriculum with new 
Christian studies. They were taught by the best graduates of the old 
schools. We find also itinerant teachers. Again each home was to be 
a school. 

6. School of Cassiodorus. He set up a claustral or boarding school 
about 500 a. d., imitating Eastern monasteries. It offered the trivium, 
with arithmetic, music, and Christian studies. He wrote text-books for 
the trivium and for the new studies. There was a higher curriculum 
also. Method : — Probably the old grammar method; in new subjects, 
learning from dictation and exercise of " holy memory." 

{School of Eusebius. — Probably a school of high grade, for it pro- 
duced many noted men. It must have had a combination of the old 
curriculum and the new.) 

7. Some pre-Benedictine Monastic schools were established early 



192 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

(about 400 A. d.), especially by Cassian. Basil, an Eastern monk, gives 
as his ideal a simple elementary curriculum with Christian studies, — 
catechism, Scriptures, church ritual, and the wonderful events of Scrip- 
ture in place of the old mythology. Method : — Committing to mem- 
ory; prizes; frequent questions. According to the rule of Basil monks 
were bound to " give asylum to orphans, to receive children, and train 
them, as well as to instruct all who came to them, in the catechism, 
the Scriptures, and church ritual." Monastic schools, however, had 
a comparatively small development now. The curriculum generally was 
very limited, bare, and narrow. But it must be looked at from the 
point of view of the times and with appreciation of existing conditions. 



XII 

SECONDARY EDUCATION FROM THE SIXTH CENTURY TO THE 
EARLY UNIVERSITY PERIOD 

The ascetic life — Psychologic explanation. — From early 
times the idea had existed that holiness was best attained by 
some form of ascetic life, which removed from distracting 
secular thoughts and gave opportunity for peaceful contempla- 
tion of the ideal. This idea had taken possession of sensitive 
souls, who were open to spiritual influences and inspired by 
high religious emotions, and of those who were attracted by 
transcendental ideas. Those of the first class were far the 
more numerous. To the second class belonged such thinkers 
as Plato, who advocated withdrawal from the world for the 
highest attainment of power (later to be used for the public), 
and Pythagoras, who formed a community devoted to an ideal 
life. Neo-Platonism, which combined Greek and Hebrew ele- 
ments — Greek intellectuality and the strong religious feeling 
of the Hebrews — reinforced the motives for ascetic life. 

Practical reasons. — But to the psychological causes, the 
state of the times added others of a practical nature. The 
unrest due to the breaking up of the world-empire of the 
Romans, and the hardships, cruelty, tyranny, and wide-spread 
vulgarity and depravity of the early Christian centuries gave 
strong incentives to withdraw from it all and to lead a holy life 
free from the turmoil and moral contagion of the day. Again, 
the belief that the dissolution of all things was coming and a 
second advent was at hand gave greater impressiveness to such 
thoughts as have been referred to. In an important class of 
the community they minimized the existing order of things 
almost to the vanishing point 1 and made efforts for spiritual 
salvation the logical as well as the practical mode of utilizing 
human activity. The various motives of course influenced 

1 Rashdall, Univ. of Med. Europe, 1 : 30-2. 

193 



i 9 4 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

men in different degrees ; some of them probably did not oper- 
ate at all in many cases. Perhaps the strongest force was 
found in the opportunity for a secure and peaceful organiza- 
tion of life, when other organizations were going down. 

Growth of monastic orders. — Communities of recluses, or 
monks, carefully and systematically organized, thus came into 
existence, and, with the rapid diffusion of the monastic idea, 
grew into a compact " order." Naturally various orders arose, 
each distinguished by a characteristic set of rules or by some 
striking principle of life, whether social or industrial. 2 The 
orders were attached to the growing church organization which 
was steadily developing a system that, for compactness and 
articulation of parts, rivalled the Imperial System of secular 
Rome, and eventually took its place. The monastic spirit was 
wide-spread, but it had its richest development in the West, 
and it is there that we are most concerned with it. 

Favorable conditions for study. — There were evidently 
time and opportunity for learning in these monastic communi- 
ties, and there is abundant evidence that learning went on, even 
when the studies involved were under the shadow of popular 
and official disapproval. We must believe that many a monk 
became the possessor of all the best of the old culture. 3 It may 
be a question whether official disapproval was not always more 
or less perfunctory. A contemplative life was especially favor- 
able to study. The monks and ecclesiastics absorbed and 
transmitted the thought and culture of the old schools. In 
fact, in the destruction of the old order of things, they were 
the only media for this transmission. But for the majority it 
was only a fraction of the old that was needed ; the rest of it 
was neglected or actually shunned under the conditions that 
have just been noted. 

A new school. — The monks however did not merely give 
themselves to study for their own pleasure. Schools for others 
and varied training in the arts of life naturally came to be a part 
of their work. They were industrial and intellectual mission- 

2 Appendix I. 

3 See West, Alcuin ; _ Compayre Abelard ; Mullinger Schools of 
Charles the Great, and History of Univ. of Cambridge from the Earliest 
Times; Amer. Jour, of Educ. 24:343 ft.; Augustine, City of God; 
et al. 



SIXTH CENTURY TO THE UNIVERSITY 195 

aries for their environs. They must train boys to take their 
places in the religious community and thus keep up the order. 
To this they added the elementary training of outsiders or 
" externes." This training in many cases, or at any rate at cer- 
tain times, was probably reduced to a minimum. 4 As a rule it 
concerned itself chiefly with that which was necessary for 
church service. But, on the other hand, it often included large 
elements of a liberal education. 5 

The school public. — Most of those who aspired to even 
the rudiments of an education were those destined for ecclesi- 
astical vocations. But the schools were open to and received 
at different periods a considerable number of others. 6 Only a 
very small part of the people, however, received even the 
simplest education. 7 

Libraries. — But the schools of the monks touched educa- 
tion in another manner. They gathered and maintained the 
libraries of the day, and through exchanges reinforced one 
another's literary treasures. These libraries affected education 
by creating a literary atmosphere, however attenuated, and by 
supplying culture material. 

Cathedral schools. — Monastic Orders were not alone in 
developing religious and educational organization. As the 
great cathedrals came to play a part in religious life, a similar 
school organization, but with more of a lay and secular element, 
grew up in connection with them. Here an ecclesiastic com- 
munity was the counterpart of the monastic community and it 
was as carefully organized as the latter. As the cathedral 
community extended its organization parish schools of more 
modest form and scope arose, associated in organization with 
the cathedral. 8 

General character of the new school. — These religious 

4 Ziegler, Geschichte der Ped., 28 ff. 

5 The library at York is significant as to the scope of learning. See 
Mullinger, Sen. of Chas. Gt., 60 ff., 74 ff. ; Univ. of Camb., 7 f . ; Laurie, 
op. cit., 24 f . See also references given later as to exceptional schools. 
On the rise of this new school generally see Mullinger, Sch. of Chas. 
Gt., 24, 29 ff., 32. 

6 Laurie, op. cit., 27 ff. 

7 Nohle, Germ. Sch. Sys., in Rept. of U. S. Com. of Educ, 1897-8, 
Vol. I, 8-1 1 ; Howard, Evol. of the Univ., 4. 

8 West. op. cit., 55. 



196 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

schools, which have been briefly referred to and which in gen- 
eral had the same aim and the same form, had crystallized 
out of the mass of forms which the last period presented. The 
monastic and cathedral schools arose naturally and combined 
with the elements that preceding centuries had defined religious 
studies and an insistent religious ideal. They gave the control 
of education to the religious orders and the clergy. 9 

But old Roman schools did not cease. — The confusion 
and upheavals attending the incursions of new tribes, who 
had fresh vigor and new ideas, but were almost devoid of what 
the empire knew as culture, and the frowns of the Church on 
the old learning had the effect of discouraging the old schools 
to such an extent that they seriously declined. It has been 
said and re-said that they came to an end. But the idea that 
so powerful and deep-seated an educational force could be 
entirely suppressed is beyond credence. There can be no doubt 
that many of these old schools continued under new auspices, — 
with curriculum augmented by new Christian studies and with 
new spirit, it is true, but yet distinctly traceable, so that forms 
and methods could be easily identified with those of Roman 
times. 1( * The church took over these schools, it did not destroy 
them ; and it moulded them according to the new ideas. This 
Greco-Roman tradition persisted in Italy and Gaul, and in 
the Irish school (whether within or without Ireland itself). 
But the prominence of the old curriculum did not occur at the 
same time in these three sections. Now it was conspicuous in 
Gaul, now in the Irish schools, and finally in Italy. It per- 
sisted more uniformly in the latter country, though more con- 
spicuously in the later period. Greco-Roman education had 
been overshadowed by other forms of education in most places, 
but it was left comparatively unmolested in Italy. 

Two classes of the new schools. — The political turmoil 
of the period, the belief in a not distant end of all things that 
existed in greater or less intensity down to the tenth century, 
the seclusion and the narrow ideals of schools, which we have 

9 De Montmorency, Intervention of the State in Eng. Educ, 8, 35-6, 
41, 56, 59, 66 ff., et al. 

10 Davidson, Hist, of Educ, 153, 156; Mullinger, Sch. of Chas. Gt, 
32; Univ. of Camb., 11; West, op. cit, 28-9; Rashdall, op. cit., 1:26-7. 
See also Clark, op. cit., 54. Conf. Chap. IX. 



SIXTH CENTURY TO THE UNIVERSITY 197 

noticed in previous paragraphs, served to reduce education in 
general to low terms. From some accounts of the period one 
would be led to believe that learning became well nigh extinct. 
But it was never so weak as has been represented, though in 
its rhythmic movements it reached low points at different times 
and in different sections. 11 Great schools in many centers, 
York, Rheims, Tours, Fulda, Corby, St. Gall, and others, tided 
the tradition over periods of general apathy and neglect. 
These were the schools whose roots touched Quintilian soil. 12 

Charlemagne and Alfred. — It was in one of the low pe- 
riods when education was in a partial eclipse, that Charlemagne 
took up the cause, and by his vigor and his organizing genius 
did much to make teaching universal and to give it new life 
and purpose. He devised a system of education that included 
elementary, secondary, and higher grades. He restored the 
old ideal and curriculum and gave place to the vernacular. He 
increased the efficiency of teaching. He added a civic purpose 
to education, which had previously been devoted exclusively 
to religious ends. A little later Alfred of England took up a 
similar work, but one of smaller scope. It is probable that 
these two reformers, at least Charlemagne, helped to revive the 
older Greek and Roman educational ideals. On the whole, 
they did not create, they simply revived, borrowed, extended, 
but they borrowed broadly. The Palace School that each King 
fostered at his court was but the rehabilitation of some older 
form. Charles found some of his teachers in Italy, and some 
in England, which was perhaps the brightest spot for learning 
at the time. Alfred in turn borrowed from the Continent, for 
meantime his country had suffered a relapse. 13 

It is not necessary to take special account of these episodes 

11 See Laurie, op. cit., and old Chronicles, — William of Malmesbury, 
62, 88 ff., 119-20, 125; Florence of Worcester, 66-8. See also Mullinger, 
Sch. of Chas. Gt, 2>7\ Rashdall, op. cit., 1:27, 29, 30, 32 ff. 

12 See Laurie, op. cit.; West, Alcuin, 174, and chapter VIII generally; 
Mullinger, op. cit.; Dill, Roman Civ. in the Last Cent, of the West. Emp. ; 
Clark, op. cit., 22 ff ., etc. 

It must not be supposed that we are making a new type of school. 
These were all Monastic or Cathedral schools, only with a stronger 
Greco-Roman flavor than others. 

13 Mullinger, op cit., 35-9, 69-70. Conf . De Montmorency, op. cit., 
4-6; Florence of Worcester, Chron., 68. 



198 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

in tracing the development of the secondary school. They are 
but parts of the larger monastic educational movement through 
which both worked. The latter may be summarized in such 
a way as to give us the typical school of the period. It is the 
less necessary to specialize here as both these movements were 
in a way short lived, depending on the lives of the two reform- 
ers and receding in the vicissitudes and confusion of the 
unsettled times that followed. 14 Yet the influence of the lim- 
ited movement permanently raised the level of education. 

The ideal. — The general ideal of the schools of this period 
was preparation for church service, either as a " religieux," or 
as a freer member of an ecclesiastic community. A subsidiary 
aim was a certain training in Latin, the language of the 
Church, and, for some centuries, of the people. Often results 
were merely formal and brought into play memory rather than 
intellect; if words could be repeated or sung it was sufficient. 
The Roman Forum had passed. Pulpit oratory was a thing 
of the future, in any sense calculated to modify the work of 
the schools. There was no alluring goal therefore to tempt 
pupils or teachers to spontaneous and enthusiastic training in 
literature and expression. There were some conspicuous 
exceptions, it is true, but we are now concerned with the 
average. 

Aims. — In the typical schools of the period Latin was 
the fundamental subject and in one direction or another 
monopolized attention. All knowledge came through Latin. 
It was an instrument of thought, rather than a means of disci- 
pline at this time. As Latin was so important in church life 
it would be fair to say that the subsidiary aim perhaps came 
to seem, in a way, the paramount aim of the schools. 

Another subsidiary aim was of a practical nature. It had 
to do in the first place with the acquisition of skill in copying, 
essential for one of the most typical industries of the monas- 
teries, that of preserving and multiplying famous literary 
works of the past. Again it found expression in training* 

14 It should be noticed, however, that at least some of the schools 
fostered by Charlemagne continued to flourish during the dissolution 
of the Empire. Adams, Civilization during Mid. Ages, 164; Rashdall, 
op. cit., 1:30; Conf. Mullinger, op. cit., 165-66; Nohle, op. cit., 6ff.; 
Clark, op. cit. 



SIXTH CENTURY TO THE UNIVERSITY 199 

" clerks " (in the narrower sense of the term), for the monk 
was the letter-writer and notary of the Middle Ages. The door 
of the church, Rashdall says, came to mean the door to pro- 
fessional life in Northern Europe. 15 

The curriculum.- — These aims define the common curric- 
ulum of the new schools, some of which, as we have seen, were 
old schools made over, some of them new schools. We evi- 
dently have Latin, or grammar, as it was called, as the leading 
and absorbing subject. Next, because of its practical bearing 
on the school aims, and because it was a primitive element of 
education, came music. Number, or arithmetic, was necessary 
only so far as it related to the " computus." Then there was 
document-writing and letter-writing, to serve the needs of the 
religious community and the general public. A smattering of 
rhetoric from the Latin text might be added, at least in some 
cases. 

Text books. — A history of education might be written 
from a study of the typical text-books of the various epochs, 
for they show both theory and practice in education, the former 
through fore-words and notes, the latter throughout the books. 
Fortunately we are able to examine the favorite text-books of 
mediaeval education, or rather the favorite reference books, for 
text-books were scarce, or practically non-existent, except as 
they were made by pupils from dictation. These books were 
summaries, or " bald epitomes," of past learning, or a part of it. 
Men cared principally for information, for the bare facts, not 
for investigation, new thought, or even richness of detail. 
Past, present, and future were identical as far as knowledge 
was concerned. The past dominated, giving all and ruling 
all. In grammar the books dealt with definitions, classifica- 
tions, and schemes, not with living language. In geometry 
they wanted the facts, not the process. Thus mere compends 
met the need and perpetuated the common ideal. They were 
practically the whole substance of instruction to the tenth 
century. 16 

The books most in favor in mediaeval education were these : 

15 Rashdall, op. cit., II : 696-7, 707. Conf. 1 : 26 and Mullinger, Univ. 
of Camb., 209 (note). 

16 West, op. cit., 22-27; Mullinger, Sch. of Chas. Gt, 69. 



200 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Orosius, Historiarum adversus Paganos, Libri. VII. 

Martianus Capella, Nuptiae Mercuri et Philologiae (Marriage 
of Mercury and Philology). 

Donatus, Ars Grammatica (Grammar). 

Priscian, Grammatica. 

Boetius, Consolatio Philosophise. 

Cassiodorus, De arte et disciplina liberalium artium. 

Isidorus, Etymologise. 17 

Most of these were small encyclopedias of the seven liberal 
arts and, as Mullinger says, slavish compilations from great 
Greek and Roman treatises. 18 They have however this 
merit, — if they added nothing, they at least presented a part 
of the great inheritance of the past, though in a bare, uninviting 
form. Capella, Donatus, and Priscian were most used; in 
earlier centuries the first two were the special favorites. 19 

Some idea of these old text-books may be gained through 
abstracts of the grammars of Capella and Donatus that have 
been prepared from these books and placed in the Appendix. 20 
As grammar was the chief secondary subject, — in fact almost 
preempted the ground, — the abstracts will be especially sug- 
gestive for our purpose. 21 

Method. — The method was that which reproduced things 
exactly as they were, — a storing method or rote method, not 
one that stimulated students to find out what ought to be and 
to increase the sum of truth ; for not individual thought but the 
condensed thought of the past was the object of interest. 
Memory work thus dominated method, and this " requires 
definite form and small compass." 

Concreteness in method. — But it must be remembered 
that the grammars and the method that accorded with them 

17 Taylor, Classical Heritage of the Mid. Ages, 47-8. 

18 Mullinger, op. cit., 21 ff. ; Taylor, op. cit., 47-56. See especially 
opera ipsa. 

19 Mullinger, op. cit, 21 ff. 

20 In connection _ with this list may be mentioned two other books 
that became favorites later and held the ground till the 16th century, 
— an abbreviated Priscian in verse, and the Doctrinale of Alexander 
de Villa Dei, in verse like the Priscian, but based on mediaeval Latin. 
The verse form of these two grammars is significant, and is itself a 
commentary on the bareness and unattractiveness of the rote-method; 
it needed rhythm to make it tolerable. 

21 See Appendix 2. 



SIXTH CENTURY TO THE UNIVERSITY 201 

represent only the formal work of the period, that language 
and concrete grammar were really learned by use, especially in 
the church service. Latin was the medium of communication. 
They lived Latin. 22 So when we look into a text-book of 
Latin grammar and find it a catalog of the more prominent 
abstractions in etymology and accidence, we must bear in mind 
that the illustrative material, the concrete, the life of language 
study, was outside the treatise, in the every-day life of the 
student, and no adequate idea of method can be obtained with- 
out considering this point. When we adopted the formal part 
of the old method we forgot this other and more important 
part of language teaching, and we did not modify the formal 
enough to cover the loss. 23 

Other matters that relieved abstractness. — While speak- 
ing of curriculum and method, we must keep in mind two edu- 
cational forces that are not always noted in discussions of these 
topics : — First we have the collections of classical and Chris- 
tian literature found in the monasteries, to which reference has 
been made before. 24 An occasional catalog that has come 
down to us gives us additional glimpses of the educational 
facilities of the times and tells of an influence that may have 
modified the barrenness of the formal text-books. Even these 
catalogs however give place to such books as Capella and 
Donatus, and do not contradict the arguments that make them 
the most characteristic school-books of the time. — Second, 
there were the monasteries, abbeys, and cathedrals themselves, 
which presented, in persistent forms, the figures, scenes, and 
even stories and allegories of Christian records and tradition. 
As Allen says in his " Great Cathedrals," " the church was 
the book ; " from it people read, and from it they received 
indelible impressions of the great facts of the new era. 

Real character of method. — Aside from these concrete 
elements, which after all relieved the dry and abstract work 
of secondary education but little, as has already been indicated, 
method was essentially formal and abstract. It agreed exactly, 

22 Amer. Jour, of Educ, 24 : 353 ; Clark, op. cit., passim. 

23 But in spite of this concrete element formal, abstract work was 
considered necessary. See page 202, and note 25. 

24 See Am. Jour, of Educ, Vol. 24 (Early Christian Schools and 
Scholars) ; Mullinger, Sch. of Chas. Gt, 71, 165-6. 



202 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

as it always does, with the conditions and the mental attitude of 
the time. A body of tradition carefully defined and to be 
possessed with exactness, a receptive attitude on the part of 
the schools, a fondness for words and forms rather than sub- 
stance, and absence of strong individuality in the people, nat- 
urally carry with them a method which reproduces mechan- 
ically, and a strictness that brooks no failure from lack of 
interest and vital attachment to the subject, but pushes home 
the task. Rote learning agrees with these conditions, and 
harsh discipline accords with it and with the general sentiment 
of the time. " Grammar and flagellation, twin brothers," may 
be taken as a general summary of the average school of the 
period, and of a school of a much later period. 25 Learning 
elementary Latin Grammar was a dreary task, consisting largely 
of memorizing words, forms, abstractions and lists, before their 
significance was comprehended. 

Some secondary schools of larger scope. — But at differ- 
ent points in the preceding pages we have caught sight of schools 
that easily distinguished themselves from those that have just 
been described. When we consider these schools, which are 
more important for our purpose because they were more nearly 
in the line of succession of secondary education than others and 
really represented secondary education during the centuries 
covered by this chapter, we must modify to some extent our 
ideas of the bareness and sternness of the curriculum and 
method just described. We must add a culture idea. In these 
schools pupils went to the sources and read and appreciated 
much of classical literature. In Writing they gave more atten- 
tion to style. They gained more insight into nature, science, 
and history, though their knowledge was still meagre and 
for the most part second hand. They touched the fine arts 
also. In their method the schools appealed more to interest, and 
in management they used a more sympathetic and hence more 
pedogogical system of discipline. Some of these schools at- 
tained great renown, but those that became conspicuous were 
very few. They had modified the Roman curriculum by adding 

25 Laurie, op. cit., 36-7, 269. See also his chapter on "The Inner 
Workings of Christian Schools," in the same book. Conf. references 
on the Renaissance period in Chapters XV-XVI. 



SIXTH CENTURY TO THE UNIVERSITY 203 

the new literature. They differed most from the old schools in 
the ideal that Christianity had supplied. Aside from these ad- 
ditions they did practically nothing to develop education beyond 
the earlier standard. These schools especially claim our atten- 
tion. We shall have to deal with them again. At the same time 
their more humble associates represent the real education of the 
period, and, after all, make a great epoch in education. 

Summary. — In summarising this chapter and defining the 
secondary school that characterized the age we must keep in 
mind the two types that have been discussed, — 1, the average 
school ; 26 2, the exceptional school 27 that was prophetic of the 
future. 



AVERAGE SCHOOL 

Curriculum : — 

Religious instruction. 

Grammar, — bare, formal 
work. 
Meagre classical literature, 
for grammatical purposes 
chiefly. 

Christian Latin literature. 

Notarial work and letter writ- 
ing. 

Music. 

Number. 



EXCEPTIONAL SCHOOL 

Curriculum : — 

Religious instruction. 

Grammar. — Elements of 
Latin language. More 
life, substance, and mean- 
ing. 

More classical literature, — 
for literary as well as for 
grammatical purposes. 

Christian Latin literature. 

Notarial work and letter writ- 



( Rhetoric, — small amount, 
formal, — and Elementary 
Logic.) ? 



mg._ _ 

Composition — both prose and 
verse. 

Rhetoric and Elementary 
Logic. 

Music. 

Number ; Arithmetic. 

Geography ; Geometry ; Sci- 
ence. All meagre. Char- 
acteristic ancient ideas. 

(Greek and History.) ? 

26 Laurie, op. cit., 24-30, 35 ff., 70 ff., 84-5, 92 f ., 95 ; Mullinger, Sch. 
of Chas. Gt, 31, 35-9, 69-70, 74, 86-88, no, 131, 158; Univ. of Cambridge, 
21-2, 42; Paulsen, Germ, Educ, Chap. II (general acct.) ; Rashdall, 
op. cit., 1:27, 30, 32 ff., 37 f.; 11:705; Nohle, op. cit., 8-12; West, 
op. cit., 27, 58, 82, 84; Howard, op. cit., 4; Ziegler, op. cit., 27 ff.; Amer. 
Jour, of Educ, 24: 99-100, III, 365; Donatus, op. cit.; Capella, op. cit.; 
Davidson, op. cit., 162. 

27 Laurie, op. cit., 50, 86, 97 f., 173 ; Mullinger, Sch. of Chas. Gt, 132, 
142 ff., 152-3; Univ. of Camb., 8 and note, 9, 20, 22, 42 ff., 57; Compayre, 



204 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



Method : — 
Also formal, but more stimu- 
lating work, more inter- 
est. More pedagogical 
discipline. 



Occasional references to such 
matters as absorbing from 
the master, — drinking in 
his words, — science illus- 
trated by apparatus, etc. 

Same books. Also classical 
authors themselves. 



Method : — 

Dictation ; rote-learning. 

Written exercises ; vocabulary- 
building. 

Catechetical plan much used. 

Severe discipline ; " flagella- 
tion and harsh memory 
work" characteristic. 

Latin language, however, in 
common use; hence some 
elements of natural 
method. 

Text-books and reference 
books few : — Priscian, 
Donatus, Capella, Isidore, 
Boetius. The last three 
compendiums of learning, 
— " transition books of 
transition centuries," 

from old classical culture 
to the revived culture of 
the 15th and later cen- 
turies. Books generally 
in teachers' hands only. 
Aim: — 

To learn the Latin language. 

To make all subserve religion. 
We should think of the curricu- 
lum as reduced to its low- 
est terms, — at least in 
many, and probably in 
most, cases. School work 
often gave nothing but a 
little poor Latin and in- 
struction in the church 
forms, formulas, etc. 
The tenth century the 
darkest in France and 
England. 

Standards varied. — There was thus no universal standard. 
Secondary education ranged from the narrowest and most for- 
mal work to real liberal education. At whichever end of the 

Abelard, 5-6; West, op. cit., 13-16, 27 f., 31-4, 44-5, 66, 131, 136, 139, 
140, 174; Nohle, op. cit., 7-9; Amer. Jour, of Educ, 24:339-40, 343-5, 
348-9, 353, 355, 359, 361-2, 36&-70, 540, 543- 



Aim: — 

To master the language of the 
church and of literature. 
To prepare for ecclesias- 
tical positions and other 
positions of influence. 

More of culture idea comes in. 

Towards the end of the mon- 
astic period ancient poets 
and orators began to be 
studied with genuine ad- 
miration. 



SIXTH CENTURY TO THE UNIVERSITY 205 

line we observe, however, we find that the secondary school de- 
veloped nothing new in curriculum, except formal religious in- 
struction, and nothing new in method; but there was back of 
curriculum and method a great force that would eventually 
transform them. 

The ideals. — As to ideals, the central thought was the 
perpetuation of a type, of an institution, — the old tribal ideal 
adapted. There was thus a return to primitive ideals, though 
colored by new religious ideas, and to a primitive type of method 
that was adapted to the ideal. 

Amid such unfavorable surroundings culture still per- 
petuates itself. — And yet culture and scholarship always 
manage to perpetuate themselves through responsive souls. A 
few in every generation, however unpromising the conditions, 
catch the glow from the past and quietly maintain it. They, 
however, merely maintain ; they do not intensify. Such times 
are not creative. The quiet seclusion of the age in question 
gave favorable opportunity for many a fine soul to sustain itself 
in culture and hand on the tradition, — gave opportunity also for 
groups of scholars to conduct conspicuous schools that were 
fair summaries of the best of the past from a culture point of 
view. This accounts for the exceptional schools. 

Service of the age. — The one distinctive service of the 
age lay in crystallizing the new form of school that gave educa- 
tion the location, attachments, and suroundings best suited to its 
general character and aims at this stage of its development, and 
in making this the typical school of the mediseval times, giving it 
such prominence in fact that it seemed the only school form, — 
" ceu cetera nusquam f orent." 

Comparison between the typical school of the period and 
old schools. — This school, as has already been hinted, was 
the same one we have seen before, but the church was substi- 
tuted for the state as a center of interest. The old curriculum 
and method were there, as a rule much attenuated and adapted 
crudely to the life and thought of the early church, but occasion- 
ally developed with surpassing enterprise. Even initiation cere- 
monies were there, but they represented induction into church 
citizenship rather than political citizenship. They were called 
confirmation, and the age of application was chosen for the same 



206 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

instinctive reason that guided primitive tribes when they origin- 
ated the ceremony, viz., the peculiar fitness of adolescence for 
the new life. Education has become institutional. 

APPENDIX I 

Six religious orders. — Human nature has not tolerated a single 
organization in any line. Many orders with the general purposes 
that have been outlined arose in the early Christian and mediaeval 
centuries. To summarize and classify some of the most important 
developments in this direction we may say that the religious spirit of 
the times evolved five or six conspicuous organizations that particularly 
concern us here. 

i. Monasteries of St. Martin and Cassian in Southern Europe, be- 
ginning in the fourth and fifth centuries. Cassian gave form to the 
monastic development. 

2. Irish monasteries, related more intimately to Greek educational 
ideals. 

3. Benedictine monasteries, widely spread over Europe. They repre- 
sented a much more extensive movement than I and 2, and wider 
ideas of education than those of the Cassian system, though still narrow. 

4 and 5. Franciscan monasteries and Dominican monasteries. They 
spread rapidly about the beginning of the thirteenth century and later. 
These took the place of the Benedictine establishments as educational 
centers, and figured prominently in early university life. 

6. To these may be added organizations of religious functionaries 
in connection with cathedrals and collegiate churches similar to cathe- 
drals, — organizations having more or less of the monastic spirit and 
form. 

APPENDIX II 

Summaries of some famous old text-books which were used in the 
schools for centuries and then served as a basis of newer books, — Lily's 
Grammar and others. 

1. Martianus Capella. 28 

Prefatory Note:_ Capella has a unique and extremely fanciful 
scheme for presenting his treatise on the Seven Liberal Arts. He im- 
agines the marriage of Mercury and Philology and very appropriately 
has as bridesmaids or attendants at the union of the crafty word- 
maker and the language maiden, the " seven arts." Each in turn 
comes forward and sets off her art in due form and style. 

We first have an introduction in verse representing a kind of sportive 
conflict with the Muse who shows the advantages and even the necessity 
of rhetorical embellishments in treating a subject, and gently rebukes 
what the writer claims is his fixed purpose, — to bring on the various 

28 The Teubner edition. 



SIXTH -CENTURY TO THE UNIVERSITY 207 

"arts" as characters giving the plain unembellished principles (prae- 
cepta) of their special lines of interest. Scattered along the not 
uninteresting poetical arguments are such expressions as 

Commenta — frigente vero nil posse. 



Uitioque dat poetae 
Infracta ferre certa 
Lasciva dans lepori 
Et paginam venustans 
Multa illitam colore. 



Vestiantur artes. 



Cur ergo non fateris 
Ni figurinis figura 
Nil posse comperari. 

Coming to Capella's prose he introduces the genius of grammar in the 
guise of a woman, in this rather fanciful style : — 

"Leto's son now brings in one of Mercury's attendants, old, 
but comely, one claiming descent from Osiris and birth at Memphis, 
long guarded in secret, but found and educated by Mercury. In Attica 
where she has lived most of her life she ' wore the pallium, but 
enters the assembly of the gods now in Latin fashion, because of Latin 
environment and Latin auspices." 

She enters as a "doctor" of language bearing the symbols and 
drugs of leech-craft, for curing various defects of vocal organs and 
faults of speech. Conspicuous among her tools is a file highly polished 
displaying eight gilded parts or sides (representing the traditional eight 
parts of speech that were a panacea for many language faults). Capella, 
after a long interval, goes on to say: "As often as she received any 
one to be cured it was her custom to treat first of the Noun, — the 
common errors and gender, then modes, tenses, and inflections of 
verbs. To cure the dull and slow she had them run the whole round, 
labor hard at the whole art." 

After a preliminary description Capella suffers the grammar maiden 
to speak and explain her art. She first explains names connected with 
herself or her profession in Greece and Rome, — litteratura, litteratio, 
litteratus, litterator, grammatodidaskalos, — and then explains the scope 
of her art. Originally grammar had to do with " reading and writing 
well," but it has added to other functions that of interpreting and that 
of demonstrating skillfully, probably referring to the rise of oratory. 

Next she refers to four forces at work: 1. Grammar (litteratura), 
the teacher; 2, letters (litterae), the subject matter; 3, the grammarian, 
or scholar (grammaticus), 29 the resultant of the teaching; 4, the skillful 
manipulator of language who has attained cleverness in the art. 

29 Nepos (quoted by Suetonius) says the term ought to be defined 
interpres poetarum. In the period discussed in this chapter the gram- 



208 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

She teaches, she says, the nature and use of speech and the art of 
judging language. In treating of speech she takes up the matter ana- 
lytically, first dealing with letters. Letters are the product of nature 
(sounds), and the product of art (forms). They are divided into two 
classes, — vowels, which stand alone, and consonants, which cannot 
stand alone. The Greeks, she says, made seven vowels, old Latin, six, 
later Latin, five. They are long or short; acute, grave or circumflex; 
combined or single. They make syllables alone or take consonants on 
either side. They change into various other vowels in inflection. Ex- 
planations or illustrations are given to make these classifications clear. 
In connection with the last characteristic of vowels there is some 
curious philology: — "Item e littera primum in a reformatur, ut sero, 
satum; vel in i, ut moneo, monitus; vel in o, ut tegendo, toga. . . . 
Similiter i quoque vocalis in a convertitur, ut signis, signa; in e, ut 
fortis forte.— Non aliter o littera in a transit, ut creo, creari; vel 
in e, ut tutor, tutela," etc. 

Then she goes on with statements and abundant illustrations as to the 
relations and "junctions" of vowels, — the letters with which they as- 
sociate on either side and the words they can terminate. Some inter- 
esting philological points are given on the way. I. Oisus is the old 
spelling for usus. 2. The letter Z 30 has four sounds, " exilis" when 
doubled ; " medius " when it ends nouns ; " leniter sonat " when it pre- 
cedes vowels; " plenus" when the letters p, g, c, or f precede. Again 
n " plenior apparet" at the beginning or end of words, exilior in the 
middle of words. 31 Divus Claudius, she informs us, in imitation of 
the Greeks added p and c (as psalterium, sacsa) ; c alone of mutes 
lengthens the preceding vowel. 32 

She next takes up consonants, divided into semi-vowels and mutes, 
and catalogs various facts as to the letters (preceding and succeeding) 
with which the consonants are associated. Here comes in the curious 
statement that r is converted into I, n, or s (niger, nigellus; femur, 
feminis; gero, gessi). Some, she says, do not make j a letter, but a 
kind of sibilant, though she finds that it deports itself like other letters. 
No one, however, makes x a letter, as it is doubled; it is transformed 
into v (nix, nivis), and into c (pix, picis). The letter h passes into 
x (traho, traxi). She makes altogether twelve semi-vowels, six vowels 
(including y), and five others (aspirates, doubles, or Greek), making 
twenty-three letters. 

maticus was the head of the monastic school and came to have much 
power in the community. In the next period sensitiveness as to his 
perogatives (and. particularly as to school revenues) stimulated or 
colored the conflicts of cities to establish new schools independent of 
the old. 
so Page 59. 

31 Page 60. 

32 These and later examples are interesting in comparison with 
modern philological explanations. 



SIXTH CENTURY TO THE UNIVERSITY 209 

The grammar maiden now runs over the various letters, showing 
by what conformations of mouth, combined with palate and breath, 
each is formed. This gives us some clue to the pronunciation of Latin. 

A poetical passage follows, in which she tells us what she has 
thus far done and introduces the topics, " syllables" " union of let- 
ters" and " accent" and then, under the influence of the prose muse 
again, briefly refers to combinations of letters forming syllables, and 
hastens on to accent and quantity. She explains accent rather poetically 
as " anima vocis et seminarium musiccs, quod omnis modulatio ex fas- 
tigiis vocum gravitateque componitur ideoque accentus quasi adcantus 
dictus est." She makes three qualities of sound, acutus, circumflexus 
(inflexus, or flexus), gravis, and tells what syllables go by these names. 
Here again she gives clue to Latin pronunciation, giving such examples 
as Cotulo, Cethegus, occidit, tenebras. She then considers the effect of 
the context in taking away or changing accent. Finally she takes up 
Greek words, which she says may be made Latin or remain Greek, 
but even in the latter case Latin and Greek agree as to middle syllables. 

Several pages from this point on she devotes to a catalog of facts 
concerning syllables long or short by nature or position. 

Common vowels next claim attention and here she makes eight cate- 
gories, 1, short vowels followed by a liquid and consonant; 2, short 
vowels followed by a liquid added to a consonant; 3, short vowels 
followed by a consonant and h; 4, a short vowel ending a definite part 
of the sentence ; 5, a diphthong before a vowel ; 6, a long vowel fol- 
lowed by another vowel; 7, when the letter c (followed by a vowel) 
ends a pronoun ; 8, when z follows a short vowel. 

She next considers Unal syllables "in which rules and regular forms 
of art consist," meaning, presumably, that they suggest a regular sys- 
tem of prosodic rules and have much to do with artistic literary form. 
Here mingled with parts of prosody are pages which are the prototypes 
of classified material as to gender, found in the accidence part of every 
grammar to this day. It is to be noted that she seems to mix present 
and future participles here. 33 

This brings her to analogy, introduced by a piece of poetry which is 
rather obscure in parts. She speaks of analogy in form and in de- 
clension and classification of words. Here we note the old form specua 
which she says the ancients used. 34 She gives variations in the declen- 
sion of genu and comu (some old forms), and also optumus and maxu- 
mus. 35 She decides that the plural parium and similar forms are mis- 
takes. 36 She curiously gives the declension of neuter and uter as 
neutrius, nutri, etc., whereas only one example of neutri as dative is 
given in Harper (and this from Plautus), while there are several regular 
genitives. The ancients, she says, made Hectoris, Catonis, but we 
shorten. 37 Again the old form is optumatum, the new optumatium. 
She says praegnas is feminine and neuter 38 and speaks of the shorten- 

33 Page 285. 35 Page 293. ™ Page 298. 

34 Page 293. 36 Page 297. 38 Page 299. 



210 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

ing of rei and spei. S9 She indicates that words have -is in the accusa- 
tive plural, when the genitive plural has -turn. Again she mentions 
the fact that some add t to lac and that the ancients said lacte. i0 Fol- 
lowing this she gives some hints as to the quantity of words ending in 
x. 41 She makes v a regular vowel and calls it such even in words like 
nix, saying that a consonant cannot pass over into a vowel. 

She next takes up verbs of which she makes five classes, — active, 
passive, neuter, common, deponent. As to modes she presents different 
classifications as given by different authors, varying from five to ten. 
Those who give five, she tells us, make them indicative, imperative, 
optative, subjunctive (conjunctivus), infinitive (or universal mode). 
Others add a part or all of the following, — promissive, interrogative 
(percontativus), and subjective as distinguished from conjunctivus, 
but she decides there is no reason to go beyond the five. 

The grammar goddess makes but three conjugations. She gives audis 
as an example of the third, but apparently recognizes two classes, those 
having -Is and -is. The signs of the conjugations she finds in the 
second singular present. One notes in passing the curious form triumfo. 
She evidently makes the imperative the base form and builds other 
forms on it; the infinitive, she says, is formed from the imperative 
by adding. 42 Consistently with other parts of her presentation she makes 
forms by changing one letter into another. Some other interesting 
points noted in this connection are these : — The ancients left off the e 
in the imperfect. This tense she names inchoativum, while the per- 
fect is absolutum, and the pluperfect exactum or praeteritum per- 
fection, or species inchoativa.* 3 Terence made -bo in the future of 
the third conjugation. Four lines are given to special cases with 
verbs 44 

Grammar now treats very briefly of anomalies, putting all remarks in 
the form, " when we say-, why do we not say- ? " 

The discourse is suddenly brought to an end by a device through 
which the assembled council at the nuptials signifies that it would be 
tiresome to them, as well as a thankless task, to run through other 
details, mentioning particularly the eight parts of speech, vitia, and 
other anomala. This suggests that various details not found here 
were given in school. It all makes grammar a dry, barren learning 
of facts rather than a thing of life. We may question whether the fanci- 
ful form of this grammar may not be a concession to give interest to dry 
formalism. 

2. Donatus. 

Book I. 

1. Vox, i.e., sound, — articulate, inarticulate. 

2. Letters classified. 

39 Page 301. « p a g es 316-17. 

40 Page 306. 43 Page 322. 

41 Page 308. 44 Page 324. 



SIXTH CENTURY TO THE UNIVERSITY 211 

3. Syllables, — long, short, common. Long syllables have two 
" times." 

4. Feet classified — abundant detail — abstract. 

5. Tones or accent. Accent-signs and other signs. 

6. Positurae, i.e., punctuation. They correspond to our period, 
colon, and comma, but are indicated by points placed at top, bottom 
and middle of line respectively. 

Book II. 

Eight parts of speech named. Donatus says " many make more, many 
fewer parts." No details. 

I. The noun. Six attributes : — 

1. Qualitas, indicating whether the noun is propria or appel- 
lativa. He includes adjectives among substantives (or ap- 
pellativa nomina). 

2. Comparison, — details and peculiarities. Diminutives come 
in here. Some case construction touched upon. 

3. Gender. Details. 

4. Number. Details. 

5a. Figurae, here referring not to inflectional forms, but to com- 
position. Simple and compound nouns. Manner of com- 
pounding. 

5b. Compound substantives and their inflection. 

6a. Cases. Some, he says, make seven cases, i.e., there are two 
ablatives, one with db, one without. (In specifying the 
ablative both Donatus and Capella used ab or some other 
preposition.) 

6b. Formae casum, i.e., peculiarities of declension, — aptotes, 
triptotes, irregulars, defectives. 

6c. The ablative. From it he forms genitive plural and dative 
and ablative plural. He mentions accusative plural in is 
when ablative is — i, and accusative singular — int. (This 
is the nearest approach to the modern paradigm. Ancient 
grammars have little to do with these much used graphic 
presentations and have little to guide the pupil in inflection. 
But this is relieved by an important part of method which 
we forget. The Latin was a living language. Forms were 
learned by use.) Before closing the topic Donatus specifies 
the letters in which nouns can end. 
II. The pronoun. Same attributes as nouns. Various details. 
III. Verbs. Seven accidents. Quality of verbs depends on mode 

and form. Seven Modes, — indicative, imperative, promissive, 

optative, conjunctive, infinitive, impersonal, (the latter not be- 
ing regarded as a separate mode by some). 

Four " forms." — perfect, meditative, inchoative, frequentative. 

Three conjugations. 

Five "genera", — active, passive, neuter, common, deponents. 

Two " numeri." 

Two figurae, — simple, compound. 
III. Three tenses, — present, preterite, future. The second has three 
forms, imperfect, perfect, pluperfect. (Donatus gives the 
names we are accustomed to and so differs from Capella). 

Three persons (and in this connection the cases connected). 



212 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

IV. Adverbs. Various origins. Lengths. Says facile and difficile 
ought to be regarded as nouns rather than adjectives. 45 Ad- 
verbs have three accidents, i, " significatio " (place, time, desire, 
quality, etc.); 2, " comparatio " (here he includes diminutives 
as correlative with forms of comparison. He did the same in 
adjectives); 3, figurae, — simple, compound. 
V. Participles. Six accidents ; in place of " qaulitas " and " con- 

jugatio " in verbs come " significatio " and " casus." 
VI. Conjunctions, — with details of classification, etc. Uncertain 
whether cum and ut are conjunctions, prepositions, or adverbs; 
determined by context. 
VII. Prepositions ; 1, governing cases ; 2, in composition. They have 
only one accident, case ; there are two cases, ablative and accusa- 
tive, the idea evidently being that the case following the preposi- 
tion is its case. Accents of prepositions are acute and grave, 
according as they are separate from or joined with cases or 
words. The ancients used a preposition with the genitive, as 
crurum tenus. 
VIII. Interjections. — Classification. Comparison with Greek usage. 
Some peculiarities. 

Book III. 

1. Barbarism, — violations of ordinary usage by adding, taking away, 
substituting, or transforming letters, syllables, quantity, accent, aspira- 
tion. 

2. Solecism, — discrepancies, bad connection. Various details. 

3. Various other vitia given, with their Greek names and with illus- 
trations. 

4. Metaphlasm, with details. Greek names. 

5. Schemata, or figures of speech, — prolepsis, zengma, etc., all with 
Greek names. 

6. Tropes. Various details. Greek names again. 

45 Section 1759. 



XIII 

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE EARLY UNIVERSITY PERIOD 

Early Christian centuries and mediaeval times compared 
as to spirit. — The early Christian centuries made good use 
of the training and methods of the Greek rhetorical and philo- 
sophical schools and the Roman grammar school in rebutting 
heresies, settling creeds, and building up generally the great 
body of patristic literature. The first stimulus of new thought 
and new ideas that came in with Christianity, working together 
with the old discipline and power produced by the old educa- 
tion, wrought marvels in this direction and left for the future a 
vast mass of material that was chiefly of a religious nature, but 
touched various sides of life, both social and political. The 
enthusiasm of a fresh age, goaded by the pricks of controversy 
that the times naturally developed, gave originality and life to 
the products of that age. 

In contrast with this period succeeding centuries may be char- 
acterized as formalizing rather than creative. It is noticeable 
that the fresh thought of one age is moulded into form in 
another. Spontaneity and enthusiastic advance of one period 
thus give place to formalizing activity in the next, to quiet but 
wide-spread assimilation. The mediaeval centuries stereotyped 
what had been set up for them by the earlier Christian age. 
Their quiescence in the direction of productiveness is empha- 
sized by the fact that they not only did not add, they even con- 
densed and epitomized to the barest summaries the mass of ma- 
terial in the production of which earlier ages reveled, and in the 
transmission of which they gloried. It was too much to take 
the whole. Besides, some crystallization or condensation in this 
vast accumulation was necessary in order that the average 
mediaeval mind might compass it. At any rate they made large 
use of these condensations of the wisdom and the culture ma- 
terial of the ancients, as exemplified in the epitomes already 

213 



214 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

referred to. 1 But they also studied in various degrees the 
patristic literature which had been handed on, applying it in 
saintly life, church forms, church organizations, and ecclesiastic 
polities of a rather intense type. The schools of the period, 
settling down, as they did, into quiet and easy forms, and giving 
themselves to memory work rather than to investigation, were 
in exact accord with the times. 

Significance of the rhythmic movement. — The rhythmic 
movement, one limit of which is represented by spontaneity and 
creative spirit, and the other limit by formalizing and assimila- 
tion, is the result of natural law. If it were not for this, ad- 
vance thought would break anchorage, — would fail to attach 
itself to the world, and would eventually lose itself. There 
must be a time of assimilation before any new productiveness 
can take place. But in time the food becomes stale, nutrition 
suffers, and the nervous system of the world becomes restless 
for something new. 2 There is an eager grasping of fresh 
thought, or an enthusiastic reviving of a thought that has been 
lost, or the working over of old thought by a new method, 3 
or the crystallization and systematization that introduce 
science. All of these we find coming into full view in the next 
period to be considered. 

Influences at work — Saracenic enterprise. — To under- 
stand the meaning of the new period for education we must 
recall the work of the Saracens in Southern Europe that 
revived old Greek culture, particularly along scientific lines. 4 

1 Chapter XII. 

2 In the present case the diet of past achievement had become so 
meagre that there was danger of intellectual aenemia. 

3 See Clark, Lat. of Mid. Ages and Renais. 36. 

4 Clark points out the importance of considering here the influence 
of Greek and Greco-Semitic culture of the Byzantines and Saracens. 
At points where the two lines of culture came into contact, as in Sicily 
and Spain, there was an inevitable stimulus of thought and intellectual 
activity from the antagonism and friction which the hostile systems de- 
veloped as well as from contributions which each school of thought 
made to the other. 

"The influence of Arabian learning directed scholastic thought into 
new channels and to new sources, rather than gave any original con- 
tributions to European knowledge. Saracenic learning was more bril- 
liant, but did not have the same deep sources and organic connection 
with the whole social system possessed by scholasticism. It did not 
take deep enough root to be perennial." Page 36. 



THE EARLY UNIVERSITY PERIOD 215 

The part of this Greek culture that most amazed and delighted 
the European world was the work of Aristotle, especially his 
logic. The minds of Europe were fascinated by the discovery, 
and they became absorbed in expounding and analyzing their 
new treasures and in applying the Aristotelian forms of thought. 
But while this occupied the foreground of attention for a time, 
the old-new sciences that the Saracens fostered and advanced, — 
both pure and applied science, mathematics, and natural philoso- 
phy, — were of equal importance. They waited, however, for 
adequate development, owing to causes that will be apparent as 
we proceed. Saracenic schools were vigorous and attractive; 
they magnetized the northern Europeans who repaired to them 
and influenced the Christian schools that sprang up beside them. 
The students of the new learning were becoming scholars who 
were to be heard from. Among the schools of the Saracens 
were noted universities at leading centers. They offered a 
broad education and were so successful and influential that 
Christendom felt it must oppose itself to them in self defense, — 
an opposition that resulted in suppressing this rampant Sara- 
cenic education about 1200 A. D. 5 Something must fill the gap 
in higher education. 

Crusades, travel, discoveries. — We must also appreciate 
the liberalizing and stimulating force of the crusades, and of 
travels, discoveries, and other influences that opened minds, en- 
couraged fresh thought, and suggested wider relations in vari- 
ous directions. Again more settled times, following incursion 
and invasion, the settling of the new and the fusing of new and 
old into new nations, gave opportunities for new thought and 
new lines of development. But it is quite as important for our 
purpose to notice two phenomena that were in part caused by 
circumstances already noted. 6 

Growth of cities. — With the growth of civilization, the 
stimulus of more settled times, and the opening up of new trade 
routes, old cities came into new life and new cities grew. More 

5 This revival was ascribed to the Arabs. They were certainly partly 
responsible for this reviving scholarship. But the new acquisitions 
were due also to a generally reviving scholarship and to a consequent 
spirit of exploration in the field of ancient treasures. See also Rashdall, 
op. tit, 1 : 68. 

6 Laurie, op. cit., 95. 



216 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

than this, they became more or less independent factors. Tak- 
ing advantage of the financial stress of crusaders they wrested 
from their feudal lords, secular or ecclesiastic, charters and 
privileges, and in other ways made themselves separate organi- 
zations or associations that were to be reckoned with. 7 They 
developed a tendency to break away from ecclesiastic schools 
and establish schools better calculated to meet their needs, the 
forerunners of modern public schools. 

Guilds. — Another form of association is seen in the trade 
guilds that grew out of conditions already suggested and were 
a commercial convenience, or even necessity, before other forms 
of federation had developed; for nations were not strong 
enough to protect their frontiers ; international law was in its 
crudest form, and tariff unions had not been thought of. As 
civilization advanced and became more complex, trades became 
differentiated and these trade guilds were evolved, forming, in 
a way, independent industrial units, as the cities and leagues 
were independent social and commercial units. All were asso- 
ciations for mutual protection and for advancing mutual 
interests. 

Specialization. — Again it is evident that with the new 
stimulus, new thought, new inventions and discoveries, new 
studies, — in short with the general advance of the growing 
times that have been briefly characterized, there would be larger 
accumulations of knowledge suggesting differentiation and 
specialization. The expert and the scholar would inevitably 
appear. 

7 This growth of cities was one of the most remarkable phenomena 
of this age, and the one that eventually had the most important bear- 
ing on education. So alert and vigorous were townsmen that they took 
advantage of every circumstance to increase the strength and im- 
portance of cities. On the one hand kings and feudal lords favored 
them. The city's industrial development and general wealth-produc- 
ing power increased the value and importance of fiefs. On the other 
hand, as men's minds were occupied with wars, which were almost con- 
tinuous, the towns escaped notice and in a way stole a march on their 
superior authorities. They grew stronger and fixed a few more pegs 
in their position, as in Germany. See Fisher, Outlines of Universal 
History, 281. Art and general culture found easier growth in these 
wide-awake and flourishing towns. The towns also fostered demo- 
cratic tendencies, for the government was generally of the type of a 
commonwealth, 



THE EARLY UNIVERSITY PERIOD 217 

In noting these changes and in tracing their effects in schools 
it is of the utmost importance to keep in mind the exceptional 
schools mentioned in the last chapter, — some, perhaps all of 
them, representing a continuous tradition from old Roman 
times. Here enterprising study and teaching were carried on, 
and students frequently flocked to them in great numbers, some- 
times in immense numbers, drawn by the reputation of scholars 
who made their temporary or permanent home there. Here 
were taught the liberal arts, and doors were open to the world. 
Some of these schools became more or less detached from 
ecclesiasticism and its organization and thus more or less inde- 
pendent institutions. A " studium publicum " was develop- 
ing. 

Private initiative. — It is true of practically all great en- 
terprises that private initiative and private effort lay the foun- 
dations. It was to be expected that scholars and experts would 
push out into a kind of independence, under the educational 
conditions that have been referred to. Constantine lectured on 
medicine at Salerno, Inerius on law at Bologna, Abelard on 
theology at Paris. The latter was attached more closely to 
ecclesiastical institutions than the other two, yet in spirit 
belonged to their number. Their lectures were open to all. 
What more natural than that these scholastic gatherings should 
form centers about which teachers in all known arts and 
sciences should gather, and that they should organize for 
mutual benefit and support. 

Rise of a new school. — Just this occurred. An associa- 
tion of teachers and scholars was formed, entirely free from 
ecclesiastic and civil control and open to all the world. It 
was a natural growth, not an artificial creation of some super- 
imposed authority. It made its own laws and governed its 
own adherents in all things, independently of the civil com- 
munity in which it was located. In a way it was a new order, 
but one that was not limited and confined as other orders. It 
had not even a charter. It was self-created and found its 
end in itself. But both ecclesiastic and civil authorities saw 
its importance, gave it place, and even courted it. This organi- 
zation with these simple characteristics was the University, — 



218 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

a veritable studium publicum. 8 A new school form had come 
into existence. It began before Saracenic schools went down, 
and because of this loss it multiplied the more rapidly. 

The university a fusion. Due to various influences.-— 
The Homeric poems represent a fusion of older ballad ele- 
ments under the influence of a new spirit, though we hardly 
know how the fusion took place. So the university represents 
a fusion of various educational movements and ideas, though 
we can hardly explain how it came about. From the Saracenic 
movement and the exceptional men of the monasteries came 
the scholarship and models for successful schools of advanced 
grade. From advancing knowledge in various lines, accumu- 
lating new and more complex material, came the need of spe- 
cialists and experts. From the few great schools, like the 
Cathedral School of Paris, came examples of brilliant scholars 
and thronging students. From cities, leagues, and guilds came 
models of free and independent associations. All were neces- 
sary for the product. 9 

The new scholarship first centers on the classics, then on 
logic. — One of the first results of the new ideals of scholar- 
ship in European universities was a more enterprising study of 
classical literature ("grammar," in the larger sense) that 
was now coming back to something of its pristine vigor. But 
from what was said as to the ideals of the period we are pre- 
pared to find that in the curriculum fostered by the new 
school-form the incidence of effort eventually fell on logic 
rather than on grammar. Logic was the center and almost the 
substance of school work. University scholars steeped them- 
selves in it ; even school boys aped it. The university curricu- 
lum was grammar, rhetoric, 1 ** and logic, with logic as the 
element which gave consistency and direction and meaning 
to all. The classics were pushed aside and grammar was 
made a boy's task. 11 Logic now became more than a formal 

8 Because the new school was open to the world the first distinctive 
name was Studium Generale, Laurie, op. cit., 173. 

9 See Laurie, op. cit., 87 ff., 91 ff. ; Savigny, Amer. Jour, of Educ, 
22 : 273 ff. ; Howard, Evolution of the Univ., 5 ff. ; Compayre, Abelard, 
5, 6, 28, 33; Rashdall, op. cit., I: 50; II: 150 f.; Stedman, Oxford, Its 
Life and Schools, 3, 4. 

10 Meagre, bare and formal, rather than cultural. 

11 In the Middle Ages Latin was regarded as an instrument for the 



THE EARLY UNIVERSITY PERIOD 219 

and perfunctory study. It developed life, — was made con- 
crete. It was one of the most conspicuous experiments in 
concentration ever inaugurated. 12 

Contrast with the previous period. — This school curricu- 
lum, it will be noted, was the same in name as that given for 
the preceding period. The difference lay, on the one hand, in 
emphasis, organization, and application, on the other hand, in 
spirit or essence. The religious tone that characterized the 
earlier epoch was gone. A secular spirit had settled down on 
the new education. Both periods, probably, had tended to 
reduce knowledge of the Bible to a minimum. At any rate 
the university trained priest, "unless he was a theologian 
or a canonist, was not supposed to know anything of the Bible 
except what was contained in his missal and breviary." 13 

This was the initial curriculum of the university — the 
" arts course." Beyond it was the M. A. work in philosophy, 
and the graduate work in the professions. 

"Requirements for admission." — The requirements for 
undertaking the " arts course " were few and simple. An ele- 
mentary knowledge of grammar (i. e. Latin grammar), which 
may safely be interpreted as a knowledge of grammar in the 
ordinary sense, together with ability to read and write simple 
Latin and to use Latin in common conversation, admitted one 
to the university. 14 It would thus seem to be equivalent to 
admitting to our universities students who have a correspond- 
ing knowledge of English. 15 The preparation was often super- 
ficial. In the fourteenth century it was a " mere smattering 
of the rules of Priscian and Donatus." As one author pic- 
turesquely puts it, the boy, 

expression of thought rather than an instrument of mental discipline. 
Particularly was this true in the epoch under consideration. Clark, 
op. cit., 58. 

12 Rashdall, op. cit., 1 : 70; II : 484, 486, 497, 600-1, 674; Ziegler, op. cit., 
32; Laurie, Renaissance and the School, (School Rev. 4 1207 ft.) ; Rise 
and Const, of Univ., 268; Compayre, Abelard, 68; 191-3; Paulsen, 
German Univ., 20; Mullinger, Univ. of Camb., 252, 254. 

13 Rashdall, op. cit., II : 700-1. 

14 Rashdall, op. cit., 1 : 201 ; II : 594 fT. ; Mullinger, Univ. Cambridge, 

369. 

15 Results were equally as disappointing as results now in English, 
and for similar reasons, — lack of life and real pedagogical work in 
teaching the subject. 



220 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

" as soon as he had learned the rules of grammar and the vocabu- 
lary of conversational Latin in ordinary use, hastened to acquire 
the subtle and unliterary jargon that would enable him to hold 
his own in the arena of the schools." 16 

This is hardly a scientific statement, but from what has been 
said the general practice is fairly clear. Testimony as to the 
standard of entrance requirements seems definite and conclusive. 

The preparatory school. — Many of the pupils who 
thronged the university were so poorly prepared that the uni- 
versity was obliged in self-defense to establish preparatory 
schools 17 of its own within its own precincts. This is a com- 
mentary not only on the character of the outside schools, but 
on the popularity of the university. Thus began a university 
influence that was far and long reaching. The preparatory 
schooL provided for a third grade of instruction inside the 
university, so that the " arts course " became the center of the 
organization. 

Aim and method. — The aim or ideal of this new school 
was not so much to add to the sum of knowledge, or even to 
develop power to do this in the post-graduate world, as to get 
possession and give possession of old knowledge from a new 
point of view, and to formulate. In the undergraduate schools 
the ideal resolved itself into the mastery of standard text- 
books by a new process that involved I, painstaking and minute 
analysis of the work to be studied; 2, the interpretation and 
logical formulation of all parts that suggested pros and cons; 

16 Rashdall, op. cit., 1 : 68. 

17 These schools were sometimes called paedagogia. 

It would seem that grammar schools readily clustered around the 
university. In fact, the university was once no more than a grammar 
school itself. The seat of a university was sometimes, if not always, 
preoccupied by grammar schools. These grammar schools often came 
under the jurisdiction of the university; sometimes they remained dis- 
tinct with a " Magister Glomeriae " at the head of the organization. 
The exact state of things appears to be far from clear. The university 
preparatory school, it would seem, was sometimes a special creation of 
the university, sometimes one of these convenient grammar schools 
absorbed by the university. It would be interesting to know whether 
the university ever " affiliated " a grammar school. It looks somewhat 
as though the schools of the Magister Glomeriae were of this sort. See 
Mullinger, Univ. of Cambridge, 140, 340-3; Brodrick, Oxford, 1-70; 
Rashdall, op. cit., 11:597-8, 603; Paulsen, op. cit., 20; Laurie, School 
Review, 4:207 ft". 



THE EARLY UNIVERSITY PERIOD 221 

3, voluminous note taking and the " getting up " of notes ; 

4, accurate recitation. As a whole, at its best, it carried with 
it great thoroughness, 18 but it often fell below this best. Much 
of this was new to the schools. But old elements of method 
were found side by side with it, — dictation ( for books were 
still scarce), copying, recopying, memory work (that probably 
included much rote-learning), 19 practice exercises, and the 
practical use of Latin in school-home and school-room. Pre- 
paratory schools probably used the old method that has been 
described in previous chapters, the main points of which appear 
in the statement just made as to old elements of method. But 
even they did not escape the dialectic furor. 20 " Fellows " 
of the university might " pose " school boys in the refectory, 
before they were allowed to enjoy the meal, and the boys of 
the school at a much later date gathered in formal or informal 
groups and argued points of grammar till the controversy 
grew so warm that satchels served for arguments. Logic 
was everywhere, therefore, the characteristic feature of 
method, as well as a subject of study. 21 

Equipment. — The surroundings of education still showed 
monastic simplicity and severity. The boys sat on grass- 
strewn floors and were led or forced by stern discipline. 22 It is 
interesting to note also that pupil-teaching was a well-estab- 
lished feature in the organization of instruction. 

The first degree. — An examination marked the close of 

18 Scholastic education, says Rashdall, at least aimed at getting at 
the bottom of things. Though words were allowed to take the place of 
things, they were not allowed to take the place of thought. See Rash- 
dall, op. cit., II : 705-6 ; Compayre, Abelard, 167 ff. 

19 Verse-grammars appear as early as the 13th century. This was 
a concession to rote-learning, as verse made grammar easier to " com- 
mit to memory." Laurie, op. cit., 269 ff. ; Rashdall, op. cit., II : 627, 649. 
Rules regulating minute points of method were sometimes made. See 
Rashdall, op. cit., II:438f. 

20 Rashdall, op. cit., II : 497, 603 ; Eggleston, Transit of Civilization, 
260. 

21 On the general subject of method see Mullinger, Univ. of Camb., 
159. 359-60, 371-2; Rashdall, op. cit., 1 : 433-4, II : 497; Conf. 1 : 248 ff. ; 
Paulsen, op. cit., 22 ff. ; Compayre, Abelard, 170, 188-9; Laurie, op. cit., 
269 ff., 272, 282. A good sketch of a grammar school method, which 
we may assume represented the maximum and not the average of 
the period for the secondary school, is given by Rashdall, op. cit. t 
II : 603. For a more detailed account of method see Appendix 1-6. 

22 Rashdall, op. cit., 1 : 438; II : 605 ff., 665 ff.; Compayre, Abelard, 170. 



222 "THE HIGH SCHOOL 

the first stage of university study. Those who successfully 
completed it received the first degree, which in the early his- 
tory of the university represented no fixed time limits, but 
later came to signify the successful completion of a four-year 
curriculum. At the beginning, as in more modern times, it 
often represented little serious study. University student 
habits persisted through centuries. 23 

Such was the new school. It was a distinctive one. But 
with all that was new and attractive there was still much that 
was bare, formal, and superficial. 24 Quite possibly it outdid 
the schools of the last period in some of these particulars. 

The "arts course" of a secondary nature. — We must not 
be misled here by the term university. In the early university 
we evidently have still largely to do with secondary education. 
The preparatory department was of course secondary, or bet- 
ter, tertiary. 25 The " arts course," i. e., all below the M. A., 
or graduate, work, was also plainly secondary. The studies 
were secondary studies. Apparently very elementary work 
was done in them. 26 It was only as he entered on his M. A. 
study that the student really came into the province of uni- 
versity or higher education. But the most convincing evidence 
of the secondary nature of university education is the age of 

23 There has recently been a decided growth in the amount of effective 
study in university education. 

24 Rashdall, op. cit., II : 595 ; Laurie, op. cit., 273 ; Paulsen, op. cit., 
21 f. ; London Quar. Rev. 58: 524 ff. Conf. Milton's characterization of 
university inheritances from this age, — Laurie, Educ. Opin. from the 
Renais., 172-3 ; Appendix 1 : 7. 

25 Mullinger's statement (Univ. of Camb., 369) that the standard of 
admission varied from a moderate knowledge of grammar to the com- 
plete trivium, might seem at variance with this conclusion, but this evi- 
dently means, if it applied to the mediaeval period exclusively, that 
more advanced preparation admitted to more advanced work, or to the 
professional schools, though, in the unsystematized condition of educa- 
tion, it may mean that standards varied very much in the secondary 
schools. 

26 Mullinger (Univ. of Camb., 340-1) says that the complete trivium 
followed by the more formidable quadrivium was far beyond the am- 
bitions and resources of the ordinary scholar. His aim was to enter 
orders and gain the title of " Sir," and to obtain a license to teach Latin, 
for which the qualifications were slight and the degree of "master of 
grammar " was sufficient. See Rashdall, op. cit., II : 598 f. Such de- 
grees continued to be given for some time after the rise of universities. 
Grammar work was of a very elementary character, which certainly 
suggested secondary work. 



THE EARLY UNIVERSITY PERIOD 223 

the boys. It was the secondary age. Boys entered the uni- 
versity in the early years of adolescence, ranging from thirteen 
to sixteen. In fact the first degree might be taken as early 
as fourteen. " Boys in their teens chattered Aristotle." If 
we add the preparatory boys, who might enter the university as 
early as eight or nine, the boyish nature of a part of uni- 
versity life is still further emphasized. 27 The university found 
to its cost that it was concerned with secondary pupils. Uni- 
versity freedom worked havoc among them, which doubtless 
gave a strong argument for the establishment of " hospitia," 
or " colleges," which were at first simply halls of monastic type 
where boys might be under the surveillance of principal or 
supervisor and get the benefit of his direction, advice, and disci- 
pline. 28 With the "college" came more individual work with 
students. In time it became convenient to have most of the 
instruction there. 

Monastic and episcopal schools. — Side by side with the 
university existed the old monastic and episcopal schools. 29 
They offered a secondary curriculum similar in name, and 
sometimes even equal in scope, to that of the university. But 
sometimes, at least in the earlier period, the regular trivium 
faded almost to the vanishing point, and this was probably one 
of the circumstances that forced preparatory schools on the 
universities. 30 The decadence is a tribute also to the popu- 
larity of the universities. 

Their method. — The general character of the training in 
these schools was bound to be colored by their regular associa- 
tions and their history, but it is probable that they partook, in 
greater or less degree, of the prevailing method, and logicalized 
their courses. 31 Here again the prerequisite for undertaking 
the work was mere school boy preparation of an extremely 
elementary character, as shown in the last chapter. These 

27 Compayre, Abelard, 191; Paulsen, German Educ, 25-6; see Rash- 
dall, op. cit., 1 : 479, 492 ; II : 484-6, 497, 704. 

28 Compayre, Abelard, 191-4; Rashdall, op. cit., I: 4826?. 

29 Compayre, op. cit, 5-8 ; Mullinger, op. cit., 68-70, 207-8 ; Nohle, 
op. cit., 19; Rashdall, op. cit., II : 601. 

30 See Mullinger, op. cit., 70, 161, 207-8. 

31 " The one stimulating and interesting morsel which a monastic 
teacher could place before a hungry intellect was a morsel of logic," — 
Rashdall, op. cit., 1 : 38. 



224 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

facts "would seem to strengthen the position taken as to the 
" secondary " nature of the introductory university work, the 
" arts course." 32 

In addition to the two secondary schools already referred 
to we find a third, modeled after the second but owing 
allegiance to a different authority. 33 This, however, must form 
the subject of a separate chapter. 

Summary.- — We have then for this period a secondary 
school scheme that may be summarized as follows : 

Aim : — Knowledge rather than culture ; discussion rather 
than application. Knowledge and intellectual activity have 
become ends in themselves. 34 

Curriculum 35 : — Latin grammar, — Donatus, Priscian, Alex- 
ander de Villa Dei. 36 

Vergil, Cicero, etc., read, but to interpret grammar. 

Logic, the central feature monopolizing attention. 

Rhetoric, small amount, bare, formal. 37 

32 Laurie, op. cit., 269, remarks of the early university course that 
it was no better than Bernard of Chartres was giving. 

3a The city school. 

a * Rashdall, op. cit., II: 692; Nohle, op. cit., 13-14; Laurie, op. cit., 
269 ff., 272-3 ; Compayre, op. cit., 167 ff . 

35 See Mullinger, op. cit., 57-8, 99, 100, 140, 167, 205-6, 238, 298, 325-7, 
340-3, 349 ff- ; Compayre, op. cit., 175 f ., 182 ; Rashdall, op. cit., 1 : 63-72, 
433S7; II: 137-8, 57i, 651, 674; Laurie, op. cit., 269, 274, 281; Nohle, 
op. cit., 13 ff. ; De Montmorency, op. cit., 75-77 ; Paulsen, German Educ, 
Chap. III. But conf. Rashdall, op. cit., 1 : 243. 

36 Priscian's grammar at the hands of Alexander de Villa Dei was 
put into verse form to make committing more palatable. It was based, 
in part at least, on mediaeval Latin, showing that the language was 
alive and growing. See Clark, op. cit., 59. 

Grammar was still an insistent study, but it was not so much an 
end in itself, the sum of discipline. It was regarded as a means to 
Latin disputation, an unwelcome, but necessary introduction to the rich 
fields of logic. Soon it sank into an end in itself again. Greek also 
is to be noticed as one of the studies of the scholastic period. But it 
was a study for the few and could hardly be properly regarded as a 
secondary subject. It has been called the most important element in 
scholastic contributions to education, but it could be so regarded only 
in the sense that the University called it, or began to call it, to men's 
attention. It took its place in the secondary curriculum only at a much 
later date. There were, however, exceptional schools. Greek was 
Spoken in Southern Italy and in Spain as late as the time of the 
Norman Conquest. There were even Greek schools. Old customs 
lingered in secluded places. See Clark, op. cit., 36 ff. 

37 Mathematics and rhetoric were of so little moment that they were 



THE EARLY UNIVERSITY PERIOD 225 

Method: — 1. The mastering of elementary Latin by old 
methods, including dictation, note work, and practice. 2. The 
thorough mastering of standard text-books gained by accurate 
learning of their content. Memorizing was prominent, but 
notes elucidating the text were numerous and were carefully 
learned. Rhetoric and logic were studied from epitomes. 
The former consisted of a collection of formal rules and hence 
was hardly a source of literary inspiration. 3. Vigorous and 
formal discussion of the content of books. It is evident that 
interest centered in method rather than in content, except in 
the case of logic, which is itself method and form rather than 
content. Method was thus, from all points of view, the 
supreme object of study. 38 

Results: — Altogether the period stands for reproduction, 
formulation, and method, not acquisition by experiment and 
discovery. 

Shifting of aims and ideals during the period. — But it was 
not all as simple and definite as it would appear from this 
scheme. At different stages in the epoch there was a shift- 
ing of aims, ideals and programs. 39 The scheme here given 
was simply the typical one of the period. 

Evaluation of the period. — Doubtless the university period 
often violated what are to us some of the most obvious peda- 
gogical principles. There was much bareness, considering the 
culture value of the material and the form through which the 
boys were taken toward the post-secondary goal. Students 
often found themselves beyond their depth, because order, 
method, and curriculum were not adapted to them. The great 

used for holiday treats, — which was perhaps a fortunate circumstance 
for producing interest, unless they were used as the strenuous Sturm 
later used his Sunday tasks. See Rashdall, op. cit., II : 674. 

38 Various points as to method may be found in the following refer- 
ences : — Mullinger, op. cit., 359-60, 370-71 ; Rashdall, op. cit., 1 : 433 ; II : 
497. 597-8, 603 ; Compayre, op. cit., 167 ff. ; Hazlitt, Schools, Schoolmas- 
ters, and School-books, 14; Laurie, op. cit., 272, 282; Paulsen Ger- 
man Univ., 22 ff.; Do., German Education, Chapter III; Appendix 1:5. 

Lower schools copied university methods. University students, as 
pointed out in the text, were often mere boys studying the elements. 
All in all the main trend in secondary school method is rather clear. 

39 Something of this shifting was noted on page 218. But there was 
more than this. A brief description of three well-marked periods will 
be found in Appendix 2. 



226 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

discovery of the day filled men's minds and they gave little 
scientific thought to the pedagogy of its attainment. Milton 
feelingly complains of the inadequacy of university education 
of his day, 40 though it was fresher and probably more efficient 
then than later. But in spite of all errors there was a broad- 
ening of outlook, a breaking away from forms and limits that 
cramped the intellect of the previous period, and a quickening 
and sharpening of thought better represented by such esti- 
mates as the following: 

" In a sense mediaeval education was too practical ; it trained 
pure intellect, gave habits of labor, subtlety, heroic industry, 
and intense application, but it left uncultivated imagination, 
taste, and sense of beauty; it trained to think rather than to 
enjoy."^* 1 

There must have been an interest, an enthusiasm, that had 
no raison d'etre before. We can feel it even at this distance. 
There was thus produced an alertness and acuteness that pre- 
pared the way for revising educational material and developing 
more fruitful educational ideas. As Laurie says, the contrast 
with the " dead uniformity of previous centuries " was 
noticeable. 

In this intense occupation it is perhaps not strange that the 
emotional side of life was neglected and that religion sank to 
a mere intellectual shadow or hardly that. 42 

The university thus spread a certain kind of training, and 
its ideals were so conspicuous and so well known that a great 
impress was made. 

It will be worth while in conclusion to note the scope of edu- 
cational interest and refer to some specific contributions of the 
period that have not yet been indicated. 

How far education extended among the people. — In spite 
of the enthusiasm that the new education excited, and the 
large number of students attracted by it, few, relatively speak- 
ing, participated in the privileges of the schools, and of these 
the majority got little or nothing of learning or culture, 

40 See Appendix 1 : 6. 

41 Rashdall, op. cit., II : 707 ; see also London Quarterly Review, 58 : 
524 flf. ; Laurie, op. cit., 273-4; Rashdall, op cit., II : 596, 707. 

42 Rashdall, op. cit., 692-3, 700-1. See Appendix 1 : 7. 



THE EARLY UNIVERSITY PERIOD 227 

because of lack of disposition or lack of preparation or both. 
Among the general population education in the eleventh cen- 
tury was almost entirely neglected. Under Lan franc, it is 
said, the Normans received the first rudiments of literature. 
Before this, under the " Six Dukes of Normandy," " scarce 
any Norman devoted himself to liberal studies." For the 
people education was about what it had been for some time. 

Some contributions of the period. 1. Growth of Latin. — 
The period contributed noticeably to the growth of the Latin 
language. Latin was still the language of the schools, and in 
a degree the language of life, 43 — a living language. It is well 
in this connection to recall the fact that one of the most popu- 
lar grammars for centuries (that of Alexander de Villa Dei) 
was based on mediaeval Latin. Notwithstanding the neglect 
of " grammar " and of classical Latin, the demands that came 
from new ideas reacted on Latin in such a way as to add new 
vigor to its life; it was put to new uses and had to express 
new thoughts and be moulded to new forms. Vocabulary was 
thus increased and scope and power of expression were 
enlarged. " The Latin language," says Rashdall, " originally 
rigid, inflexible, poor in vocabulary, and almost incapable of 
expressing a philosophical idea, became, in the hands of 
mediaeval thinkers, flexible, subtle and elastic." 44 Later, 
Latin as a living language was killed "by the Ciceronian 
pedantry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries." 45 But 
modern languages were soon to grow, and Latin could not 
hope long to be a living language, even in philosophy. 

2. Latin literature. — There were some additions to Latin 
literature during the period, though it was conspicuously a non- 
creative age in general. The Troilus of Albertus Standensis, 
the Catena Goliardi, the Gesta Romanorum, and metrical 
romances and annals, indicate that the history of Latin litera- 
ture cannot pass over the period in silence; but the typical 
literary productions were rhymed lives of the saints and metri- 
cal chronicles, together with formulations of theological 
dogma. 46 

43 Ordericus Vitalis, 1 1423; II: 40; Clark, op. cit., 38-40. 

44 Rashdall, op. cit, II : 596. 

45 See Clark, op. cit., 35; 108-9 ; Rashdall, op. cit., II : 596. 

46 We should also note the preparation of a new grammar which was 



228 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

3. Text book idea. — The idea of text-books, as already- 
shown, was very prominent, because one of the typical school 
tasks was the mastering of certain standard books that were 
precious because of their scarcity. 

4. Construing. — Construing, begun before the period, 
became a stereotyped element of method at this time and has 
persisted almost to the present time. It fitted admirably 
the analytical tendency that was so conspicuous, and hence 
impressed itself deeply on the schools. 

5. Gradation of schools. — The gradation of schools re- 
ceived more attention. Certain requirements were established 
for passing from one grade to another, certain tests were given, 
and certain signs 47 and symbols marked the fulfilment of the 
requirements. Thus the ideas of examinations, curriculum, 
and degrees became fixed in education. 

6. Reformers — Modern pedagogical writers began to 
appear. A few men were giving expression to their insight 
into better things in method and matter. The tremendous 
intellectual activity that was rife was bound to yield some 
results in this direction. Pedagogical writing, it is true, did 
not serve to alter the character of method at the time; 
there was not enough of it to have much effect on the 
actual practice of the day; but it foreshadowed a new era in 
education. 48 

The period looks modern. — The early university period 
in many ways looks modern rather than mediaeval. It broke 
away from the forms of the past. It was laying the foundation 
for still further advance. Some characteristic details of the 
time seem puerile and have excited ridicule and disparage- 
ment, but we must judge the period by its trend. Looking 
behind the underbrush that skirts the period we discover sub- 
stantial services. We shall define the period a little more 
closely and, perhaps, symbolically, if we single out its most 

a favorite for so long,— in fact to the 16th century. This was the 
grammar of Alexander de Villa Dei mentioned before. 

47 Of these signs or symbols there were four, — the degrees of M. G., 
A. B., A. M., and the Doctorate. The first, however, soon disappeared. 

48 In this connection it may be interesting to carry the topic one 
step further and note a contribution of the University proper, as dis- 
tinguished from its Secondary department. See Appendix 1 : 7. 



THE EARLY UNIVERSITY PERIOD 229 

characteristic services, which will come more clearly to view 
by comparison with other epochs. 

A brief survey of the contributions of previous epochs. — 

Primitive civilization developed the rudiments of our secondary 
curriculum. The story method of imparting and the process 
of memorizing appeared. As far as concerned education, rote- 
learning was seized upon instinctively as the one necessary 
feature of the educational process, agreeing, as we have seen, 
with the race ideal that made the integrity of the tribe and the 
perpetuation of its ideas supreme. Outside of formal educa- 
tion, however, there was, of course, much that was natural and 
concrete. 

The next epoch developed in full form, and finally in great 
detail, the linguistic part of the curriculum. It also introduced 
mathematics in the form of geometry and arithmetic. To 
geometry it gave remarkable development. Arithmetic it left 
in crude and cumbrous form that remained till modern times. 
In the direction of method the period instinctively turned to 
objective work in number, wrought out the abstract method 
in mathematics, and the formal or classical scheme of lan- 
guage teaching. 49 At the same time it developed the dialectic 
mode of approaching a subject, though this remained a minor 
element of method in the schools for many centuries. 

The next period was a transition one. New forces had 
entered the educational field, — those represented by the peda- 
gogy of the Gospels. They influenced education at first only 
in a narrow and limited way, though in an impressive manner 
and with important results. They worked themselves out more 
fully later. In the schools it was a period that mingled new 
and old without producing any decisive form. 

In the fourth period, representing the centuries between 500 
and 1000 A. D., the religious school was developed, a formal 
religious element was added to the curriculum, and older ele- 
ments were minimized. Method became bare and formal. 

Services of the present epoch. General. — What then 

49 It should be remembered that this, in the epoch of its development, 
included much that was concrete, as seen in Chapter IX. In later 
epochs, however, this dropped out, and the " classical method " became 
purely abstract and formal. 



230 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

shall we say the period now under discussion added to general 
education ? Old emphases were abandoned, — even religion was 
slighted, and everything was made subordinate and subservient 
to the new subject, logic, which, though developed centuries 
before, now first came to be a regular school subject, and a sec- 
ondary school subject at that. 50 In pedagogics the analytic 
and syllogistic method appeared and held the field. 

Special — The preparatory school. — The characteristic con- 
tributions of the period of early universities, however, seem 
to lie in other directions. It developed the preparatory school. 
Old grammar schools became " feeders " ; but, particularly, the 
university took within its precincts and under its jurisdiction 
a preparatory school of its own that played a large part till the 
last century, and even now holds its place in certain quarters 
where conditions similar to those that gave it birth exist, or 
where a certain educational exclusiveness is desired. 

A secondary school in name, as well as in fact. — The 
school of the young adolescent for the first time in a 
thousand years became a secondary school and became such in 
a new and more definite manner; there had grown up above 
it a new institution thoroughly organized and far more distinct 
from it than the old "rhetorical " school, as distinguished from 
the " grammar " school ; for rhetorical training was but a con- 
tinuation of the grammar training, and the lines of demarcation 
were so indefinite that they were often lost sight of. 51 This 
making of the university a fully distinct and separate institu- 
tion, with new aims and new methods, and the attachment of 
the older school to it as a preparatory school was a notable 
event in the education of that time. 52 More pointed and potent 
than before became the influence of the higher school on the 
lower. Aims, curriculum, and method were modified and 

50 The logic of Quintilian was a far different study and was also a 
correlated subject 

51 Note Quintilian's complaint in Book I of his " Institutes." 

> 52 Of course the new relation was not uniform, for there were varia- 
tions and changes as time wore on. There are epochs in the develop- 
ment of this relation that will be considered later. But what has been 
said is a fair characterization of the whole period. # This special rela- 
tion of university and secondary school continued its influence to the 
dawn of the 20th century. See Mullinger, op, cit., 369. Compare the 
case here with that mentioned by Quintilian. 



THE EARLY UNIVERSITY PERIOD 231 

toned by the ideals of the more advanced institution. As time 
went on relations grew, if anything, more exacting. At any 
rate they were felt more keenly, even to the point of restive- 
ness, till the situation came to seem so unnatural that a con- 
flict for emancipation was inevitable. 

Scholarship. — But there is one other thing that perhaps char- 
acterized the period better than anything else, because it went 
deeper and extended farther. The period developed for mod- 
ern times the idea of scholarship. However crude it may 
appear, a genuine idea of scholarship began to show itself. 
The world sadly needed the ideal. 53 



APPENDIX I 

1. A time of genuine classical enthusiasm. — Rashdall's statement 
here is significant, — "for about half a century (twelfth century), 
classical Latin was taught, not merely to young boys but to advanced 
students, in at least one school of Mediaeval France, as later it was 
taught in universities of the Reformation and the Jesuit colleges. 
Latin was taught in a thorough classical way. Lectures covered pretty 
much the whole field of classical Latin." The method was as follows : 
— I. Questions on parsing, scansion, construction, grammatical figures, 
and oratorical tropes, illustrated in the passage read ; 2, varieties of 
phraseology noticed ; different ways in which this or that thought was 
expressed were pointed out; the whole diction was subjected to elaborate 
and exhaustive analysis; 3, comments on subject matter, enlarging on 
allusions to physical and ethical points ; 4, the next morning pupils were 
required under severe penalties to repeat what was learned the day 
before; 5, daily practice in Latin composition, prose and verse, in imi- 
tation of special classical models ; 6, frequent conversations or discus- 
sions on given subjects with a view to acquiring fluency and elegance 
pf diction. This description represents the idea of John of Salisbury. 
In his Metalogicus he tries to vindicate the claims of grammar and 
philology. He recognizes the bareness of logical training for minds ig- 
norant of everything else. 

But scholasticism "would none" of this revived classicism; it was 
crowded out relentlessly. See Rashdall, op. cit., 63 f. 

2. Bernard of Chartres' school taught grammar or rhetoric less 
mechanically. Attention was given to correct Latinity. Cicero and 
Quintilian were studied as models, and there was a wide acquaintance 
with Roman literature. 

3. Construing, parsing, discussing. — In the grammar school the 

53 " The great work of the university was the consecration of learn- 
ing." Rashdall, op. cit., II, 692-3, 707. 



2Z 2 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

rudiments of a classical education were taught in much the same way 
as at present, says Rashdall, II. 603. Donatus and Alexander de Villa 
Dei were the grammars. After the Psalms were learned they took 
up Cato, then Ovid and Vergil. In the absence of dictionaries the 
master construed to pupils and then required them to construe. In 
England books were construed into French as well as into English* 
There were questions on parsing, disputations in grammar, examinations 
in prose and verse. All this stopped when the students entered the 
university. No more classical books were construed. Little was heard 
of compositions. There were now lectures on grammar and similar 
subjects. 

We must not, however, be misled, by these limited citations, into 
thinking that the movement as a whole was limited. Neither must we 
persuade ourselves that these and similar references represented the 
typical method. 

The typical method for the university seems to have been a bare 
and formal one still, with the interest of real things and substance less 
in evidence than before. 1. Standard grammars were dictated, ex- 
plained, memorized. Donatus, Priscian, and Alexander de Villa Dei 
were the favorite grammars, — the two latter in verse. Vergil, Cicero, 
etc., were read, but to illustrate grammar. 2. There was discussion 
(syllogistic) on grammatical points. With the exception of 2 the 
method was perhaps very similar to that of the previous period: — 
a barren method. Logic and rhetoric were studied from epitomes. 
Rhetoric was regarded as a collection of formal rules rather than a 
source of literary training and a concrete subject. Latin was still used 
for communication. 

4. Method in the university. — It is interesting to note more in de- 
tail the method inside the university, which in part, it must be remem- 
bered, was merely a secondary school. (A) Minute analysis of a book 
down to the initial sentence or thought; paraphrasing of the sentence 
for better presentation of the meaning; comments and explanations; 
students took copious notes, copied, recopied, revised, "got up." (B) 
Author's thought, where practicable, cast in the form in which it might 
serve as subject matter for the all-prevailing logic of the day; ques- 
tions formulated and argued pro and con; work in this connection 
often, probably, catechetical in form; master then suggested his inter- 
pretation and defended syllogistically. Another account of method (in 
advanced work) makes dictation, discussion, reproduction character- 
istic features. 

5. Method regulated by statute. — It is interesting to note that 
sometimes they attempted to regulate method by statute. Boys in 
"arts" were required to sit on the ground instead of on benches, 
which had apparently come into vogue. Other statutes required masters 
to lecture extempore instead of reading or dictating. They even pre- 
scribed the exact flow of words — "to speak as rapidly as though no 
one were writing before them."— Rashdall, op. cit. t I ; 438. 



THE EARLY UNIVERSITY PERIOD 233 

/ 

6. An estimate of university training. — Milton, Tractate, 1644. 
Quoted by Laurie, Hist, of Educ. Opinion, 172-3: — 

"I deem it to be an old error of universities not yet well recovered 
from the scholastick grossness of barbarous ages, that instead of be- 
ginning with arts most easie and that be such as are most obvious 
to the sense, they present their young unmatriculated novices, at first 
coming, with the most intellective abstractions of logick and Metaphys- 
icks ; so that they, having but newly left those grammatick flats and shal- 
lows where they stuck unreasonably to learn a few words with lamenta- 
ble construction, and now on the sudden transported under another 
climate to be tossed and turmoiled with their unballasted wits in 
fadomless and unquiet deeps of controversie, do for the most part grow 
into hatred and contempt of learning, mocked and deluded all this while 
with ragged notions and babblements, while they expected worthy and 
delightful knowledge." 

In the rhetorical presentation of general impressions by such men 
as Milton and Luther there -is no place for the exceptional that of 
course existed. But we are after the average, not the exceptional. 

7. Results in higher reaches of learning. — In the higher reaches 
of knowledge the result was the formulation and crystallization of past 
acquisitions handed on by the early Christian centuries and the early 
mediaeval years. Hence came, on the one hand, the development of 
dogma that culminated in the science of theology, and, on the other, the 
growth of the sciences of medicine and mathematics, of geography and 
physics. 54 The typical method was that of syllogistic reasoning, de- 
rived from the rediscovered Aristotle, — a restored dialectic. Aristotle 
thus became Christianized, or rather theologized. This was scholasti- 
cism, but it applied more to the advanced work of the university than to 
the secondary departments. As a matter of fact, however, scholasticism 
was older than the university. 



APPENDIX II 

CHANGES IN AIMS AND IDEALS WITHIN THE UNIVERSITY PERIOD 

In the twelfth century, before the University had worked out its 
typical forms, grammar was the center and almost the substance of the 
University curriculum, and grammar students and grammar teachers 
were most conspicuous for some time. The University at this time 
abounded in "grammar schools." Amid comparative quiet in the po- 
litical world grammar, which stood for learning, revived and had a 

54 See passages in Chapter XIII and the early part of Chapter XIV, 
dealing with enterprising work in science, etc., particularly in Spain. 
For an example of differentiated geography see Georgii Fovnier e 
Societate Jesu Gegraphica Orbis Notitia per Litora Maris et Ripas 
Flnuiorum. Parisiis MDCXLIX. This book was published somewhat 
later than the period under review, but it shows how matters had been 
tending. 



234 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

real classical treatment. By the term grammar we are of course to 
understand grammar in its ancient comprehensive sense. It was a 
classical revival of genuine spirit and enterprise. The Roman poets 
and orators flourished in the schools. Grammar therefore assumed 
its old-time place as a regular, not an exceptional, occurrence. See 
Appendix I : i, 2, and Rashdall, op. cit, I, 63-64. 

Just then, however, the new treasure, logic, came to light, or rather 
to new light. "Grammar" was dethroned and the new subject was 
set up in its place and received the incidence of attention in the schools. 
As mentioned in the text the classics were neglected and grammar be- 
came a primary task. (Rashdall I, 68.) Latin was regarded as an 
expression of thought, rather than an instrument of discipline (Clark, 
58). 

But an idea unchanged becomes monotonous. Methods and ideals 
so pronounced, so specific, and so formal, as was the case in " scholasti- 
cism," became outworn as exclusive educational forces. Men's minds 
reached out for new objects of study and effort. It should also be said 
that the gains of the passing epoch prepared students to push out 
more profitably into the new. The early university type gave way 
before a revolutionary movement. The new movement, however, rep- 
resented a revival and transformation of an old phase of education, 
rather than the creation of a new one. In the absence of contemporary 
culture-material men turned to that of the past. For a time, however, 
the movement did in spirit represent a new ideal. So the University 
epoch shades into the Renaissance. Here is some evidence of the 
awakening : — 

In the fourteenth century there was almost universal ignorance of 
grammar, and Richard de Bury began to make books (Mullinger, op. cit., 
205-6). Soon Oxford and Cambridge established schools for the spe- 
cial purpose of developing giammar teaching, and more modern text- 
books followed (Hazlitt, op. cit., 14, 84). Rashdall, op. cit., II: 514, 
570-1, is interesting in this connection. In all this history Italy must 
be excepted; the traditions stimulated more genuine culture there and 
gave a more generous place to mathematics and science, Nohle, op. cit., 
14-21 ; Mullinger, op. cit., 345 ; Rashdall, op. cit., 1 : 249. 



XIV 

FOUNDATIONS OF A NEW SECONDARY SCHOOL 

Results of practical needs and practical politics in the 
" University Period." — Influences at work in the " Univer- 
sity Period " led to notable developments in other directions. 
Side by side with the Universities, and almost coincident with 
them, there was developed another educational institution. It 
grew out of the same educational conditions which produced 
the University, 1 but it was the result of a very different combi- 
nation of forces and influences and represented different ends 
and purposes. It was a response to the practical demands of 
the times. Practical needs of life, and particularly practical 
politics, produced it. As life and life's outlook 2 broadened 
under the conditions previously discussed, and as trade and 
cities grew, men felt the need of a school nearer to and more 
dependent on the center of life. A study of ancient forms 
also must give way to, or be supplemented by, studies that 
would give practical preparation for the commercial and indus- 
trial life of the day. Ecclesiastical education must be sup- 
plemented by secular education. The disadvantage of distant 
schools conducted by monasteries, often remote from sections 
of the growing cities, must be remedied by the establishment 
of local schools nearer the pupils' homes. 3 Cities, which had 
originally made a close circle around the monasteries as centers 
had probably spread at will as other than religious influences 
drew them, as trade in other directions occupied them, and as 
the protection of the monasteries, which were fortresses as 
well as shrines, was no longer needed. Again, foreign school 

1 See early pages of Chapter XIII and particularly those dealing with 
the growth of cities. 

2 See Chap. XIII. Conf. Chap. XV. 

3 Nohle, in Report of U. S. Com. of Educ, 1897-8, 1 : 21 ff. 

235 



236 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

authorities hardly in sympathy with the new city demands 
must be replaced by authority vested in the city itself. 4 

Independence in school management inevitable. — The 
feeling of independence developed in city life was sure to carry 
with it independence in school management. The city itself 
must be its own school authority; only by such an arrange- 
ment could the feeling of dignity be kept intact, and strong and 
vigorous. Above all, the city needed some means of estab- 
lishing and perpetuating a civic ideal on which its well-being 
depended. 

A city school. — Owing to all these influences, owing per- 
haps particularly to the last, came the " City School," which 
appeared about 1250 A. D. It is evident that it represented 
a very different motive from that which called forth the spe- 
cializecTand specializing university. 5 

A difference in name rather than in fact, at first. — The 
movement for city schools was not, however, a simple one. 
At first the main thought seems to have been on the name, 
rather than on the curriculum. It naturally used the only 
model it had, — the monastic or cathedral school, from which 
it differed little, if at all, in general outline. 6 It adopted the 
only style of educational clothes it knew. It formed in time, 
however, a center for national culture, as contrasted with 
ancient or foreign culture, and it paved the way for the state 
school. 7 Because at first it was a copy, and a copy of a school 
already studied, we need not stay to speak at length of it 
here. 

Schools of private associations. The vernacular. The 
new arithmetic and algebra. — Soon a parallel movement 
started that gave expression to the more practical side of life, 
and brought in practical subjects like the vernacular and com- 

4 The " scholasticus " had gained supreme power in education, and, 
as school income from fees was an appreciable item in finances, he was 
jealous of his position. Some petty school contests resulted from at- 
tempts of plain citizens to push their educational plans, but the vigorous 
action of the cities, which were young and virile, regularly won the 
point, or at least secured a compromise. Nohle, op. cit., 21-22. 

5 Ziegler, op. cit., 33-38; Nohle, op. cit., 18-22; Paulsen, German 
Educ, 28 f . 

6 Nohle, op. cit., 23. 

7 Beginning in the 16th century. 



A NEW SECONDARY SCHOOL 237 

mercial arithmetic. 8 The latter subject was advanced in im- 
portance by special schools of arithmetic 9 fostered and main- 
tained by private commercial associations. The new arith- 
metic, however, made way slowly. The old Greek and Roman 
method, with its cumbrous notation and objective reckoning 
by hand counters or abacus, died slowly. The new arithmetic 
was characterized by the Hindoo (or Arabic) notation, ease 
of computation and representation, and consequent rapidity of 
action. 10 The party that advocated the new-old Hindoo nota- 
tion and " written arithmetic," with its short graphic processes, 
in place of the old and bungling concrete or objective arith- 
metic, was opposed by the party , that clung to the hallowed 
symbols of the past, so fully incorporated in church thought, 
church decoration, and church forms. The monasteries were 
the last to give in. 11 It may be said also that Algebra was 
rising, or that the foundations for it were being laid, as was 
natural after the advent of the new symbolic arithmetic. The 
great text-books of Ben Ezra and Leonardo were soon to come. 
Again, there were general guild schools supplied by mediaeval 
guilds, apart from regular city schools. They may have 
emphasized industrial subjects, at least at a little later period. 
But for a time their curriculum was probably the same, or 
much the same, as that of the common church school. That 
the practical idea must have grown slowly is shown by the fact 
that even a guild had its religious forms and employed priests 
to say masses for its benefit. It was through these priests 
that the school was originally carried on. The growth of such 
schools is exemplified by the Merchant Tailors' School, which 
still exists and now squares its curriculum with modern 
requirements. 12 

8 Nohle, op. cit., 24. Great apprehension was aroused by these in- 
truders. Men felt that schools were going wrong by thus departing 
from traditions. See Green, Town Life in Fifteenth Century, II : 12 ff. 

9 Fink, Brief History of Mathematics. 

10 Presses now became busy with primary books on " Algorism." 

11 The new arithmetic undoubtedly simplified work, but, in the absence 
of practical pedagogy, it tended to make arithmetic abstract. The val- 
uable element in the old arithmetic, its concreteness, was so far lost that 
it took the drastic reforms of Pestalozzi and others to make it concrete 
and adapt the subject to children's need. 

12 See also Ziegler, op. cit., 33 ff. Conf . Leach, Eng. Schools at the 
Reformation. 



238 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Three schools, all illustrating the new spirit. — It will be 
seen that the new times thus present a double or triple move- 
ment: i. The City Latin School modeled on the existing 
secondary school, but destined to grow very slowly out of that 
model, to modify its curriculum, reluctantly, but surely, and 
finally to emerge as the gymnasium. 2. The Vernacular 
School, at this time an elementary school, but in time to send 
out a secondary branch with modern languages and modern 
science as the basis of its curriculum. 3. The Guild School, 
a representative of private education. 13 The first, as already 
indicated, dates from 1250 A. D. It spread so rapidly that in 
Germany at the end of the mediaeval period there was hardly 
an important town that had not established such a school 
through its City Council. The second dates from 1350, the 
third ^perhaps from 11 50. 

Studies and methods. — A summary of the secondary 14 cur- 
riculum for the schools we are dealing with 15 would show that, 
aside from the two points noted above, there was practically no 
change from the general forms of the time, which have been 
given in detail in previous chapters. 16 Latin was the great 
preparatory subject, and logic gave flavor to the whole. The 
trivium, with the emphasis on the third member, formed the 
typical secondary curriculum. Methods were the characteristic 
ones noted before. Hence, aside from a possible touch of the 
practical in these city schools, the aim showed no divergence 
from those with which we are already familiar. 17 Still, if we 
go beneath the surface we can feel the movement towards cul- 
ture for secular positions and secular life, in addition to that 
for ecclesiastical functions. 18 

Real significance of the new school. — The immediate cur- 
riculum and method, which show so little divergence from the 
old, therefore, are not the significant features in the case. We 

13 Leach, op. cit., 34 ff.; Nohle, op. cit, 21 ff. 

14 The new commercial and practical ideals showed themselves more 
distinctly in the elementary schools. 

15 The early university period extending to the Renaissance. 

16 The real innovations in the curriculum were probably most con- 
spicuous in primary schools. 

17 Nohle, op. cit., 19 f ., 23-25 ; Laurie, op. cit., 95 f. 

18 Ziegler, op. cit., 33 ff. 



A NEW SECONDARY SCHOOL 239 

must look rather at the source of the movement and at the new 
authority in education, and we must note that a new direction 
was given to education and a new ideal introduced. The sig- 
nificant feature therefore is that other interests, besides the 
ecclesiastical, felt the need of education, because of the insuffi- 
ciency of the natural education of imitation and apprentice- 
ship. Communities became too large and too specialized to be 
satisfied with the old order. Accumulations of knowledge, new 
and old, must be made accessible to a wider school public. 
Schools were therefore to be adapted to the needs of more than 
one profession and occupation. This principle once started 
must in time materially change ideas as to appropriate school 
subjects and methods, and it did, as will appear in a later 
chapter. 

For the first time since Roman times we have a school organi- 
zation that supplies the surest principles of growth. Hence- 
forth secondary education is to come more out of the life of the 
people. These schools from their freer and more sensitive 
position and relations were thus the main hope for such respon- 
sive changes in school practices and policies as the times might 
require. 



XV 

SECONDARY EDUCATION OF THE EARLY RENAISSANCE 

Rising and falling waves of imagination. — The Greek and 
Roman periods afforded favorable conditions for the develop- 
ment of the imagination in various forms ; for imagination has 
as many forms as life has interests. The succeeding centuries 
confined thought and imagination within very narrow limits. 
Aside from a very limited use of the imagination in connection 
with the spread of Christianity they busied themselves with 
mastering forms and words, giving prominence to memory 
work. Imagination in these centuries recurred to the primitive 
and sensuous type. 1 The early university age was absorbed 
with sharpening the intellect, sharpening rather than cultivating 
it. It was however refashioning and whetting a tool which 
would accelerate creative work in following ages. 

But imagination cannot be permanently ignored. The next 
period saw it bud and bloom again in as great profusion as ever. 
There was a freshness, spontaneity, and even exuberance about 
it that have always won admiration. It showed its broader 
functioning. It was the richer for the new power that inter- 
vening centuries had developed, for it not only gives to every 
other power, it takes something from each, — which is only 
another way of saying that it is a form, an association, rather 
than an independent power. This new epoch is not merely 
interesting psychologically, it is especially interesting because 
of the important place it occupied in establishing secondary 
school forms and policies. 

A new intellectual awakening. — The scholastic age, as we 
have seen, contributed something that in a marked way distin- 
guished and separated the age from those that preceded. But 
the new interests then developed became outworn in the course 

1 This should not be considered a disparagement. It was a natural 
step in the evolution of a new ideal. 

240 



THE EARLY RENAISSANCE 241 

of the centuries that saw the early universities grow into power. 
The mind is never long satisfied with old forms and material. 
It must work from a new point of view or busy itself with new 
creations. Forceful human predispositions and endowments 
will supply their own conditions of development and will find 
appropriate outlets or fields of action. The last part of the 
scholastic age quite naturally developed a restless spirit that 
longed for new substance on which to use the new tools that it 
had prepared, longed for new aims and new inspiration beyond 
the abstract forms of logic. It found them, but the substance 
was an old substance revived, and the inspiration was that which 
came surging into minds from the wonderful discovery of 
ancient treasures. There was a rebound from what had become 
flavorless and tedious, and the rebound made a new epoch in 
which various intellectual processes, and among them imagina- 
tion, started into a fresh and broader life. It was a renais- 
sance of both intellect and spirit. 

The Renaissance. Only an episode in a larger renais- 
sance. — This Renaissance of the centuries beginning somewhat 
earlier than 1400 A. D. was but an episode of a larger renais- 
sance beginning much earlier. New ideals came into life and 
education in the early Christian centuries and needed time for 
rooting before the new and the old could fuse and nourish one 
another in a newer and stronger civilization. This time of 
preparation was so poor in what the world had regarded as 
culture that when culture re-emerged in a more settled Chris- 
tian civilization it seemed a veritable renaissance. But there 
were several flashes of brighter intellectual activity on the 
way, — a series of births and re-births. That of the fifteenth 
century seems the brightest and most persistent. Yet it is 
probable that those preceding it in Spain, in France, in Italy, 
and later in various other countries, had no less vital influence. 
In such an evolution there are luminous epochs, but no culmina- 
tion. A renaissance is rather a phase or phenomenon than a 
noumenon. Charlemagne's and Alfred's brief work and the 
new activity coming into Europe through Saracenic culture and 
study and through the early universities were thus as truly 
renaissances as the one we have now reached. 

Many forces at work. — The growth in insight and outlook, 



242 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

in power of assimilation and appreciation, may sometimes be 
very gradual, even imperceptible ; again they may be accelerated 
by certain fortunate conditions, either individual or national, 
through which the influence of opposing and obscuring forces 
is largely annulled ; they may be facilitated by a clearer view of 
ideals and more practical methods of realizing them that come 
at more lucid intervals when experiments can be carried on by 
inspired agents not hampered by tradition nor thwarted or de- 
flected by conservative forces; they may come by cataclysm. 
Such fortunate plannings, discoveries, applications, and even 
forcings are as much a part of evolution as the slower processes 
of nature. They are a part of nature. All renaissances prob- 
ably present these several types of movement. Such was the 
nature of the awakening after the sleep of ancient culture. We 
simply mark the latter by capitalizing the word. It is distin- 
guished from the others by its intensity and because it stands 
at the confluence of two streams of science and culture, one 
coming down from the Orient and Greece through the Arabs 
in Spain, the other coming more directly from Greece and 
Rome through Italy and the Revival. 2 

A broad movement. — Ideally and typically a renaissance has 
to do with the awakening of the mind generally, with new in- 
sight into life in all directions. We have perhaps allowed our 
minds to center on the imaginative features of the new age, 
and more expressly on the esthetic development that was con- 
spicuous in the direction of literature and art. 8 Indeed, con- 
ditions were ripe for the development of a keener art spirit 
than had been manifest for many centuries. But to confine 
ourselves to this phase of the Renaissance is to view it from 
only one angle. It was much larger than this. 

The Renaissance was at first reasonably true to the broad 
type that has been referred to, encouraging a broadening of 
thought in many lines. But for some time, after the first 

2 The latter represented a double descent: — I. Italians became more 
vigorously conscious of the culture and culture material that had re- 
mained in their midst, originally derived in part from Greek influence, 
in part, however, from original and masterful qualities in the Romans 
themselves. 2. The dispersion of scholars, on the fall of Constantinople, 
brought to the West new contributions of Greek culture. 

3 There was marvellous development in other directions. 



THE EARLY RENAISSANCE 243 

enthusiasm had settled into more formal thought and mood, it 
spent its force in studying the past and in interpreting and 
adapting past achievements. It therefore gave a fresh view in 
a single direction and became a narrow movement. It was so 
almost by accident. Even thus it prepared the way for a richer 
movement that will be considered in later chapters. 4 It will 
be worth while to note the causes of this narrower develop- 
ment and to study its results. 

Immediate occasion of the Renaissance. — Conditions and 
antecedents of the Renaissance were those circumstances or 
forces whose influences have been traced in the awakenings of 
the university movement and in the spread of city schools. 5 
The immediate occasion was the Revival of Learning. At 
different periods, and in limited areas or circles, men had caught 
views of the culture material of the ancient world, particularly 
the ancient Roman world. 6 But in the fifteenth century they 
began, in a larger and more vital way, to study, and to draw 
inspiration from, the ancient classics of both classic nations. 
Content of classic literature entranced as it had not, except in 
rare instances, since Roman days, and had rarely done even 
then. Spirit ruled and form retired as a paramount object of 
effort and study. The new movement began in Italy where 
the old masterpieces had remained in sight and where every- 
thing suggested the old days. But it soon spread. Every- 
where the lodestone of interest, or the supreme object of 
effort, especially educational effort, was the old classic culture- 
material. The story has often been told, how the new interest 
spread and what favor, even furor, was aroused by the new 
studies. It need only be suggested here. 

The central interest. — As the idea of culture, in contrast 
with bare church service and the practical ideals of the later 
university period, came to the front in the literary products of 
the only well known cultured nations, young Europe made a 
supreme effort to take intellectual possession of this literature, 
now designated as the ancient classics. 7 Linguistic study thus 

*See Chapters XVIII-XX. 
6 See Chapters XIII and XIV. 
6 See Chap. XIII and Appendix 6 of that chapter. 
7 " The study of language became the common bond between the 
literary and religious promoters of the Revival in the 15th and 16th 



244 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

became the absorbing occupation of scholars and would-be 
scholars, and eventually monopolized the energies of the schools. 

A psychologic phenomenon; not dependent upon Latin 
and Greek.— If the classics had been completely lost, mental ac- 
tivity would have occupied itself elsewhere with remarkable 
results, and would have achieved genuine culture. The 
Renaissance was, par excellence, a psychological phenomenon, 
a genuine mind-awakening. We have been misled by taking 
certain sequences, conditions, and occasions as causes. Pro- 
fessor Laurie says, with a good deal of justice, that the 
Renaissance was not dependent upon Latin and Greek for its 
origin or its permanence, and he calls attention to the fact that, 
long before this, Europe had begun to seek original expression 
for its own view of human life in the indigenous literary prod- 
ucts of Germanic nations. 8 Each epoch, however, needs to 
stand on the shoulders of the past in order to get a fairer out- 
look and make the best headway. Progress would be waste- 
fully slow if each new period had to work out everything from 
the beginning from its own view-point. The form and con- 
tent of Latin and Greek literature were a great inheritance and 
ought to have led more quickly to a new creative epoch. But 
unfortunately men became so absorbed in the old that they for- 
got the new. The assimilative process extended beyond all 
reasonable limits. 

Two contrasted parts of the Renaissance period. — The 
Renaissance was not a homogeneous period. It had two 
phases, an earlier and a later, strikingly different in aim and 

centuries. A barbarous and monkish Latinity was the vehicle of a bar- 
barous and monkish conception of life. We cannot separate language 
and thought. Hence the identification of the Humanistic Revival, 
literary and esthetic, with the study of Latin and Greek, — the two great 
vehicles of literature and art common to the European world. Hence 
too the identification of the revival of a pure Christianity with the 
critical study of the same languages and of Hebrew." Laurie, — 
Studies in the History of Educational Opinion from the Renaissance, 
page 13. 

8 The Niebelungenlied is based upon primitive ballads. The Song 
of Roland, The Cid, The Kalevala, and other epic literature of Western 
Europe rest upon, and have grown out of, a stratum of ballad litera- 
ture. In the present case the natural literary development of Europe 
early became obscured by the borrowed development of classic nations, 
and had little influence, or, at any rate, only a late influence. 



THE EARLY RENAISSANCE 245 

characteristics. The early Renaissance was characterized by 
the spontaneity, freshness, and enthusiasm of early contact with 
classic culture. The mind as a whole was stimulated ; the out- 
look was a broad one; many interests drew attention, so that 
the mind went out actively in many directions. It is impor- 
tant here to notice again that Latin was still a living language. 
It was an instrument of thought, not an instrument 9 of disci- 
pline. The scholastic epoch had given it new power and made 
it a great force in life, as already noted, 1 * but it had narrowed 
its use to a single interest. The Renaissance brought back to 
Latin its many-sidedness, as interests were manifold and Latin 
was the natural means of communication for all. The language 
was thus adapting itself to new thought and expression in many 
directions. Goliardi moulded it in mediaeval songs. 11 Erasmus 
used his powerful influence to make Latin the language of the 
schools and give it a development consonant with the times, as 
seen in his compositions for school use. 12 Latin was thus an 
active, vital force. Altogether it is evident that the period was 
one of enthusiastic outlook. The Renaissance mind had not 
yet turned in upon itself. 

Typical secondary school of the early period. Its aim. — 
The school that represents this phase of the Renaissance is that 
of Vittorino da Feltre. His curriculum and method were thor- 
oughly humanistic. His ideal was the old Greco-Roman ideal 
transfused by Christian thought, — 

"the penetration of Christian life with classical culture." As 
amplified in Woodward's monograph the ideal was the " harmonious 
development of mind, body, and character, actualized in young 
men who were to serve God in church and state in whatever po- 
sition they should be called upon to occupy ; " and the author 
adds (perhaps with some exaggeration that a general statement 
couched in rhetorical terms is liable to involve), "scholars per- 
suaded themselves that style could fulfil the function of religious 

9 Clark, op. cit., 57. 

" The relation of Latin to the needs of various classes explains its 
prominence at the time of the Reformation. Everywhere men actually 
needed it, — read, wrote, and to a large extent spoke and, perhaps, 
thought in Latin." — Leach, op. cit., 105. 

"See Chapter XIII. 

11 Clark, op. cit., 40, 41, 68. 

12 Clark, op. cit., 82 ff. Erasmus in a way marks the end of this de- 
velopment of Latin. 



246 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



instinct, that argument and illustration drawn from an authoritative 
past and driven home by exhortation, couched in classical literary- 
form, could serve as a spiritual force to the individual life." 

With our waning regard for the classics, and particularly 
with our broadening ideas of education, we can hardly appre- 
ciate those older teachers' estimates of the study of the classics 
as an instrument for developing multifold power and an all- 
round man. 

The details of Da Feltre's school are very interesting. They 
show how far the educational world had traveled since medise- 
valism defined its school forms. A summary under the three 
usual heads will serve to focus thought on the characteristic 
features of his school and give us a fair idea of its scope. 

Da Feltre's school : — 
Ideal:-l 

The penetration of the Christian life with classical culture, 
or the harmonious development of mind, body and character. 
The aim was to send forth young men who should serve God 
in church and state in whatever position they should be called 
upon to occupy. 13 

Curriculum : — 

Latin, — the central lan- 
guage; medium of in- 
struction. 

Greek, — taken up early. 

Composition, — systematic 
graded course. 



Language and literature the core 
of the curriculum. The chief 
factors in education. All else 
subordinate or ancillary. 



Arithmetic. 

Geometry, with elements of 

Algebra. 
Astronomy. 



Valued by Da Feltre as the only 
exact knowledge we possess, 
and as the finest possible stim- 
ulus to exact thought. Ge- 
ometry probably the favorite, 
and of course taught through 
Euclid; but general principles 
were regarded as all that was 
essential. " Too much devo- 
tion to the abstract side " was 
thought " a form of trifling." 
Algebra barely alluded to. 
Natural philosophy (probably including geography). A kind 
of key to nature allusions found in literature. 

13 See Woodward. 



THE EARLY RENAISSANCE 247 

Natural History. — Perhaps the " Bestiary " would well define 
the idea here. Men were interested in accounts of strange 
animals and plants, and color beauties in stones. The 
substance of natural history was probably a collection of 
interesting and marvellous items about natural objects. 
These subjects were regarded as an aid to vocabulary- 
building. 

History. — For ethical values and for insight into customs 
and national virtues. 

Philosophy, — chiefly ethics, particularly Stoic ethics. 

•Logic or dialectic. 

Morals. 

Religious instruction. — The whole course of training in a re- 
ligious setting. "The dignity of human lips is based on 
their relation to the Divine. ,, 

Physical training, — both for hygiene and for culture. The 
Greek ideal of the harmonious development of mind and 
body added to the Roman practical ideal of a sound mind 
in a sound body. 

Music, — admitted sparingly. Severer melodies favored. Com- 
pare with ideas of Plato and Aristotle. See Chapter 
VI. 

General Method : — 

Books few; oral work predominated. Text dictated, con- 
strued, translated. Notes given, to be copied by the pupil. 
Oral questions. Lectures. 

The pupil also came into account. <Da Feltre studied the 
taste and capacity of each pupil, took note of his proposed 
career, and adapted his method accordingly, while ample 
variation in subjects gave him the means of keeping up the 
interest. 

Special method in language: — 

Grammar not yet "crystallized into authoritative rule and 
usage, but still largely a matter of induction." A small manual 
of accidence in question and answer form might be used, but 
otherwise grammatical usage was gathered from a study of the 
authors. A many-sided knowledge must be secured before 
the regular reading of the authors for themselves began: — 
1. A vocabulary by dictation, with the chief inflections. 2. 
Easy passages from the poets explained, probably translated, 
and used for exercises in accidence. 3. A similar course in 
historical narrative and moral anecdote, with stress on subject 
matter, in connection with elementary composition and dis- 
putation. 4. Accent, quantity, enunciation were essential 
features of every lesson. An important means of gaining 



248 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

language and language style was constant practice in composi- 
tion. 14 

Grammar was fundamental, though not the formal propae- 
deutic it finally became. But the narrow idea of grammar as 
a fundamental subject introductory to literature was growing, 
|and even here was being laid the foundation of the idea that 
"grammar is the essential instrument of teaching, and that 
its study lies at the root of all intellectual progress." 15 

The edifice of letters was built on this grammatical founda- 
tion. Here comes in Quintilian's idea of the " explication " of 
literature, including meaning and construction of words, and 
a study of style and allusions. Parallel teaching of Latin 
and Greek was practiced. 

Special method in physical training : — 

Formal gymnastic exercise, and the spontaneous exercise of 
games. 

Special method in morals : — 

Morals not a formal study in the course, but enforced 
by correlation and environment. Corporal punishment not a 
factor of method here. Aside from the ethical influence of 
the curriculum, character was formed by sustained personal 
influence and supervision. An active, healthy, happy school, 
with clearly defined ethical character was the ideal, thus 
furnishing the best conditions for character building. 

It is evident from this summary that Latin was becoming 
fixed in the curriculum, and that grammar was assuming its 
special role as a fundamental in the course. 

We must not be misled by terms here, and think that 
Da Feltre's school was more advanced than it really was. The 
work in what we now call advanced subjects was probably very 
elementary. Secondary and higher sections of the school were 
doubtless as indefinite as in Quintilian's time, but it is easy to 
see that the basal elements of this outline represent a true sec- 
ondary school and that the pupils in substantial numbers were 
secondary pupils. We should remember again, however, that 
the school was of the European type, which takes boys earlier 
and keeps them later than American secondary schools. 

Other typical spirits of the early Renaissance. — This 
school was an expression of the early Renaissance spirit. 
Da Feltre was not alone, though he perhaps represented the 

14 Conf . Quintilian. 15 See Woodward. 



THE EARLY RENAISSANCE 249 

period in its purest form. ^Eneas Sylvius, Guarino, and others 
belonged to the same type of educators, 16 — those who were 
reinstating secondary education. This enterprising educational 
work is a striking indication of the fact that the ideal and social 
status of the teacher were rising, 17 and that education in all 
its branches was taking on new life and getting a clearer view 
of its larger functions. 

Prototypes of this school, with comparisons. — It can 
hardly escape notice that the first conspicuous schools of the 
Revival were copies of the best schools of old Rome, though 
permeated by Christian ideals. Such was Da Feltre's school. 
It is evident that we have in its spirit a stronger hint of Greek 
thought and aim than we find in Quintilian, but there is evident 
similarity between the two educators. There is similarity not 
merely in detail of plan and method, but in the general aim. 
Quintilian's ideal was a civic one. Da Feltre's was also civic, 
only of a broader type, as the times demanded. This early 
humanistic education was a preparation for Christian citizen- 
ship. Each teacher therefore was responsive to his times, as 
any true educator must be to do his work in an adequate man- 
ner. Da Feltre had grown as his times had grown. He lived 
in the present as well as in the past. 

Such was the nature of the first period of the Renaissance, 
and such was the school that responded to its spirit. Spon- 

16 Woodward, op. cit., and Ziegler, op. cit., 45-48. Ziegler gives ab- 
stracts ofVergerius' "Good Morals and Liberal Studies," Vegius' "On 
the Training and Good Morals of Children," Sylvius' " Treatise on the 
Education of Children," Guarino's " The manner and Order of Teaching 
and Learning," most or all of which show a more interesting and a 
more vital pedogogy than ruled at the time. 

17 Da Feltre's ideal of the teacher was in strong contrast with the ideal 
of the previous period indicated by the following citation : — 

" Let those teach who like disorder, noise, and squalor, who rejoice 
in the screams of the victim as the rod falls gayly, who are not happy 
unless they can terrify, flog, and torture. How then can teaching, be it 
of grammar or any of the liberal arts, be a fit occupation for honorable 
age? Quit so debasing a trade while chance offers. Pueros doceant 
qui majora non possunt, quibus mens tardior, sanguis gelidus, animus 
lucelli appetens negligens fastidii." 

The language may be overwrought, but after all it shows the estimate 
of the genus teacher by the earliest humanists. It represents the past, 
however, rather than the future, though it probably does not come far 
from giving a fair picture of average school conditions as late as 
Luther's boyhood, and even much later. 



250 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

taneity, interest, enthusiastic cheerfulness, and a belief in the 
influence of knowledge on life and character were character- 
istics of revived culture. 

Elyot's school in England. — Italy was not alone in produc- 
ing educators of the new type. About the time Da Feltre was 
working in Italy, England had an exponent of the lively 
Renaissance spirit in Elyot, who has given us his school plan 
in a book called the Governour, — a reduced Quintilian. In 
his curriculum English is to come before Latin, except as Latin 
is picked up by a natural method in early years (before 7). A 
few " quick rules of grammar " are followed by reading. The 
language is advanced by colloquial means. By fourteen the 
boy is to be familiar with the ^Eneid, parts of Lucian, Aris- 
tophanes, Homer, Vergil, Ovid, and Lucian. After this come 
logic (the "Topics"), rhetoric (Quintilian) and the orators, 
geography with maps, and history (in Livy, Caesar, Sallust, and 
Xenophon). After seventeen the boy is to take up the first 
two books of Aristotle's Ethics, Cicero's De Officiis, and Plato. 
His idea of one great feature of method is tersely put, showing 
that he does not favor a burden of grammar as a preliminary : 

" It (grammar) in a manner mortyfyeth his courage, and by 
that time, he cometh to the most sweet and pleasant reading of 
old authors the sparks of fervent desire of learning are extinct 
with the burden of grammar." His idea of a grammarian is well 
defined negatively in these words : — " I call not them grammar- 
ians (teachers) which only can teach and make rules whereby 
a child shall only learn to speak congruous Latin, or to make six 
verses standing on one foot, wherein perchance shall be neither 
sentence nor eloquence." 

His grammarian is the broad literary man of Quintilian who 
teaches literature by what Laurie calls the best method ever 
produced, — but hardly the best that could be produced. 

Here, then, was another great school in another part of the 
world. The schools which we get a glimpse of in this chap- 
ter, so far as they go, are immeasurably superior to those of a 
much later day, better than those of fifty years ago; better, 
shall we say, than many a great secondary school to-day. 

Progress of the humanistic secondary school. — Humanism 
gradually spread over Europe. But as a rule the new life 



THE EARLY RENAISSANCE 251 

with its marked characteristics of spontaneity and enthusiasm 
opened later in the North than in the South. In the North 
it depended on a center of diffusion far away. The Renais- 
sance was an external force working its way in after missionary 
principles. In Italy it was an inner force working its way out. 
Again the North was, in a way, a non-cultural land. The 
marks and relics of culture bequeathed by an older civilization 
did not show themselves in profusion and richness as in the 
South, but the North soon felt in its more sluggish way what 
the South felt at the outset. 18 

18 There were characteristic differences in the progress of the Re- 
naissance in different countries, and the movement was of course not 
a simultaneous one in the different sections. 

England was perhaps an exception to the slow response. From early- 
days this country has been responsive to education and has had brilliant 
educational periods. 



XVI 

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE LATE RENAISSANCE 

Later Renaissance compared with earlier. — The later 
Renaissance presents a striking contrast with the earlier epoch 
discussed in the last chapter, at least as far as concerns the 
substance of secondary instruction. We have already seen that 
in the early Renaissance language study not only was the basal 
work of the curriculum, but occupied the major part of the 
time, and that Latin was the language which claimed chief 
attention. Latin was then a living language and hence per- 
formed two functions in education. Now, however, Latin 
was passing as a living language. It had long lain outside the 
life of the masses, who spoke Teutonic dialects or a hybrid 
language formed of Latin and Teutonic elements that modi- 
fied one another and then fused. The status of the masses was 
gradually rising, impelled by the forces and conditions that have 
been described in recent chapters. The vernaculars were thus 
assuming power and influence. 1 There was finally no need of 
teaching Latin for practical purposes at all, but the time was 
not yet. 

Language is first of all a practical subject, and its develop- 
ment has depended upon practical considerations. At the out- 
set every-day need was the controlling influence. Then a cul- 
tural aim suggested itself and added its peculiar force to the 
evolutionary process. The latter aim, however, is just as prac- 
tical as the former, for it issues in real service, increasing both 
the efficiency and scope of language. The one aim produces a 
serviceable medium of communication, the other gives form 
as well as substance. Then came a pseudo-practical idea that 

t * In Germany, for instance, its condition was gradually improved 
till, in the outburst of the early German classic times, guided by the rare 
spirits of Lessing, Goethe, and Schiller, it triumphed for literary pur- 
poses also. 

252 



THE LATE RENAISSANCE 253 

gave to language study the aim of formal discipline. It 
afforded small welcome and smaller opportunity to other aims. 
Under its sway Latin, losing the inspiration of the practical 
aims referred to, " became copy." From this time almost to 
the present the idea of formal discipline has been paramount on 
the foreign language side of secondary education, and it still 
holds a large place. While language is a practical subject, the 
teaching of language has generally come far short of being a 
practical matter. 2 

Status of Latin in the later Renaissance period. — In the 
later Renaissance period, — the sixteenth century, — Latin was 
still taught for certain practical purposes, at least for a time. 
Though it could no longer be called the vernacular for the 
people at large, it was still the language par excellence of the 
educated, — their medium of communication, both oral and 
written. Science, art, and literature still owned it as their lan- 
guage. 3 Vernaculars were still too far from a culture status 
to be considered as means or ends of educational plans. They 
were for the masses and did not come within the extended 
course of education that was only for the few who affiliated 
with the Latin element. 4 

The Latin language thus held men's gaze and efforts at this 
time because of what it was and what it contained, and because 
of its still existing practical relations. To be in the cultured 
circle, to be possessed of the means of communication between 
culture-centers, and to appreciate the content of which the lan- 
guage was the vehicle, one must possess the language. It was 
accordingly easy to lay supreme stress on language study and 
in effect make it an end. 

Latin of the Golden Age now the aim. — Under these cir- 

2 In spite of much splendid work on the disciplinary side of language 
teaching it must be confessed that results in the direction of language 
power have not been at all commensurate with the energy expended. 

3 Leach, op. cit., 105, says that everywhere men actually needed it, 
read it, wrote it, and to a large extent spoke and perhaps thought in 
it, as indicated in a previous note. 

4 There was a caste in language, as there has always been. Barriers 
shut out the newer and more practical. There have always been gentiles 
or barbarians in subjects of study as well as in peoples. The missionary 
linguist or the missionary philologian are not easily developed. Dialects 
destined to become strong cultural forces are left to grow up by 
themselves ; a part of evolutionary machinery is withheld from them. 



254 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

cumstances, when Latin was no longer a necessity in any such 
sense as during the period covered in the last chapter, it is not 
a long reach to a modification of the aim just noted in the direc- 
tion of a particular phase of language study. There thus came 
an absorbing ambition to possess the language of the golden 
age of Latin development, — in fact to make youth like the 
Romans of Roman days. 

Formal discipline. — So deep an impression did the idea 
make that, amid various vicissitudes, it can be traced as far 
down as the end of the nineteenth century. Now as soon as 
ends are narrowed in this way, and the acquisition of a special 
type of language becomes paramount, there is a tendency to 
formalize language teaching, because mechanical and formal 
methods seem the easiest way of mastering old forms. " What 
was a revelation to one generation becomes an unintelligible 
routine to the next." In the history of language teaching there 
will be found to be a regular rhythm between the culture 
idea and the form idea, — the latter obscuring the former, 
because, after all, the acquisition of language forms must 
occupy a large amount of attention. " Formal discipline " 
becomes an easy aim when language teaching occupies the 
chief place in a curriculum and when the language is no 
longer a living one. Correlatively formal teaching becomes an 
easy method. It is a commentary on the laissez faire spirit of 
the secondary school. 

Textual movement. — Added to this natural tendency was 
the influence of the philological and textual movement that 
came during the second part of the Renaissance and made tech- 
nical language and grammar study prominent. Scholars 
became interested in studying the history and relationships of 
languages and in deciding on fine points in text-criticism. To 
do this one must have a language eye for the minutest forms. 5 

Sturm's school a type. — These things will be more clearly 
understood from a concrete example of later Renaissance peda- 
gogy. This is found in the school of John Sturm, of Strasburg, 
a typical school of the period. 6 For centuries it influenced the 

5 See Laurie, Hist, of Educ. Opinion from the Renaissance, 28 ff. 

6 There were other noted schools of the period, but this will prob- 
ably best serve as the type, 1, because it comes nearer the tradition 



THE LATE RENAISSANCE 255 

ideals of secondary teaching. Fortunately we can get a some- 
what more detailed outline of his plan than is practicable in 
many cases, for school programs quickly disappear. From the 
published letters of the great schoolmaster to his teachers we 
can make out not merely his general curriculum, but details for 
each class. 7 

It is significant that Sturm was a pupil of the Hieronymians. 
They were pioneers in absorbing the spirit of the Revival and 
in introducing into Northern Europe a new education, — new, 
because fused with new ideals and supplied with new and 
fresher material, and because dealing at first hand with inspir- 
ing wholes of literature instead of with bare epitomes 8 of 
great works of the past. But Sturm seems to have systematized 
and formalized what in his masters was freer and more spon- 
taneous. He did it so successfully and with such eclat that 
his school was known far and wide. He attracted the notice 
even of kings and princes, who became his patrons in great 
numbers. His acquaintance was so extended and his personal- 
ity so marked that, it is said, no diplomat passed through Stras- 
burg without stopping to converse with him, and his advice and 
influence were sought in state politics. 

In Sturm's mind the end of education was " piety, knowl- 
edge, and the art of speaking." But, as he saw that " knowl- 
edge and purity and elegance of diction distinguished the cul- 
tured from the uncultured," these became the aim of school 
discipline. 

He laid out a curriculum for ten years of school life applying 
to boys from the age of six or seven up to their entrance upon 
university study, or some other tertiary curriculum. Only 
the last half of his curriculum can be regarded as secondary, 
but we need to look at the whole in order to appreciate the half. 
This is his scheme. As one reads he feels its intensity and its 

which we are following ; 2, because we have fuller details than for most 
schools. Other schools are noted in an appendix, and certain details 
have been given in regard to them that will be found useful in inter- 
preting the new epoch. Some of these schools, it must be confessed, 
give hints of a more attractive pedagogy than ruled in Sturm's school, 
but they are not for that reason better^ types of the period. 

7 See the American Journal of Education, 4: 167, 401. 

8 Such epitomes as those of Capella, Isidore, and other encyclopaedists 
and grammarians. See Chapter XII, Appendix. 



256 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

really wonderful organization, and is impressed with the mas- 
terfulness of the teacher. 

Sturm's School Plan. 
(Uniform text-books throughout the school. 9 ) 

Class i. 
The foundations: — 

Forms and correct pronunciation of letters. 
Reading, — better secured by teaching declensions and conjuga- 
tions than by use of the catechism (showing that reading 
meant Latin reading, and giving a hint as to the text-books 
in reading which had been in vogue). 
Spelling and writing. 
German catechism committed to memory. 

Class 2. 

More thorough work in declensions and conjugations, including 
irregulars. 

Latin vocabulary (large). — Names of common objects arranged in 
natural groups. Also short sentences and sayings. Pupils thus 
made their own dictionaries, — dictionaries of three depart- 
ments. 

German catechism. 

Translation of modern Latin. 9 

Class 3. 
Drill on past acquisitions. 
Dictionary making enlarged. 
More grammar, including etymology. 

Translation of Cicero's letters, with constant reference to the gram- 
mar. Also translation of modern Latin. 
German catechism. 

Class 4. 
Drill on past acquisitions. 
Grammar, — Latin syntax. 

Reading of Cicero's letters, Cato, 9 and modern Latin. Transla- 
tion of Sunday sermons. 
Style exercises (Latin), involving all the knowledge thus far gained. 
German catechism translated into classical Latin. 
Music. 

9 Caesar was evidently not imposed on beginners. This text was prob- 
ably included in the more advanced work of Class 8. It is interesting 
to see what books are chosen for early classes and to review our present 
customs in the light of Sturm's curriculum. Sturm was himself a pro- 
lific writer of new text-books. 



THE LATE RENAISSANCE 257 

Class 5. 

Drill on past acquisitions. 

Reading of Cicero's letters, Horace, Terence, Martial's epigrams, 
Book of Poetry, Sunday sermons. 10 .On Sundays, reading of 
some letters of Hieronymus. 10 Translation of Latin catechism. 

Greek begun. — ^Esop's Fables. 

Music. 

Class 6. 

Drill on past acquisitions. 

Vocabulary again, — names of unfamiliar objects. 

Reading of Cicero, Cato, Vergil, second Book of Poetry, Latin 
Catechism, Sunday sermons. On Saturdays and Sundays one 
epistle of the New Testament to be read and interpreted. 10 

Style exercises (Latin). 

Technique of poetry. Verse writing. Practice in restoring meters, 
etc. 

Mythology. 

Greek continued. — Sunday sermons in Greek to be read. 

Greek vocabulary building. 

Class 7. 

Drill on past acquisitions. 

Boys now well provided with choice words and illustrations. Care- 
ful attention to be given to listening, interpreting, and repeating 
from memory. 

Reading of Terence, Cicero, Horace. On Saturday and Sunday 
epistles 10 of the New Testament to be paraphrased from an- 
other's reading. 

Style exercises (Latin). 

Greek grammar and book of examples. — Msop. 

Class 8. 
Drill on past acquisitions. 
Rhetoric, — doubtless from Latin treatises. 
Reading of Cicero's letters and Cluentius, Latin historians and 

poets, Demosthenes, Odyssey, Greek historians and poets. 

Epistles translated and committed to memory. 
Retro-translation in both Latin and Greek, — doubtless Latin into 

Greek and vice versa. 
Style exercises (Latin). Style must be incessantly practiced and 

improved. 
Greek and Latin poems changed into different meters. 
Composition of many poems and letters (of course in Latin). 
Plays of Plautus and Terence acted, in Latin. (Sturm's school 

was equipped with a theater.) 

10 Undoubtedly all through the medium of Latin and Greek, so that 
even religious exercises served Sturm's great aim. 



258 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Class 9. 

Interpretation of Greek and Latin authors. 

Rhetoric, with Demosthenes and Cicero. 

Iliad, one book. 

Epistles learned and recited. 

Relations between oratorical and poetical usage. Comparison be- 
tween Greek and Latin here. 

Exercises in style. 

Dissertations composed and delivered in Latin. 

Acting of plays of Plautus and Terence (in Latin), and a play 
of Aristophanes, Euripides, or Sophocles. 

Logic. 

Arithmetic. 

Class 10. 

Logic and rhetoric enlarged; applied to Demosthenes and Cicero. 
In this connection also Vergil and Homer are to be taken up. 

Thucydides, Euripides, Sallust. 

Facility in writing and declamation to be thoroughly cultivated. 

Catechism and epistles to be expounded, and passages amplified, 
after the fashion of rhetoricians. 

Astronomy. 

Some propositions from one book of Euclid. 

Special features of the school. — This outline gives a fair 
idea of Sturm's curriculum, and of substantial portions of his 
method as well. There was practically no modern language 
work except what was involved in studying Latin and Greek 
with a view to Sturm's rather narrow aim. There was no 
history (except in Greek and Latin), almost no science, and 
only a mere trifle of mathematics. The characteristic features 
of method were formal grammar work, dictation, copying, 
memorizing 11 (though in smaller amount than before, because 
of the growing number of printed books), incessant and vigor- 
ous practice in style exercises, reading of classic and modern 
authors in fragments not in wholes, and constant use of Latin 
in school work, in conversation, and in dramatic performances. 
Even this brief summary perhaps does Sturm more than justice, 
for, while there seems to be a considerable amount of reading 
in his curriculum, it is rather an episode in the technical work 
of composition and grammar, or a vehicle to take one over the 
road leading to a command of Ciceronian style, and yet it did 
give real contact with Latin and Greek authors. 

11 Laurie, op. cit., 36. 



THE LATE RENAISSANCE 259 

Discipline. — The tension of this school is seen in Sturm's 
thought that boys should be kept under the discipline of the 
rod ; " nor should they learn according to their own choice, but 
after the good pleasure of the teacher." 

Comparison of Da Feltre, Sturm, and Quintilian. — As Da 
Feltre made prominent the humanism of Quintilian, so Sturm 
made prominent his formal practice and drill, — his disciplinary 
program. He was terribly in earnest ; he was a master at de- 
fining aims with great distinctness, keeping them in the fore- 
front of consciousness, and pursuing them persistently, not to 
say relentlessly; he was without a rival in organization. Yet 
we feel that his school was a travesty of Quintilian's, which he 
evidently made his model. We miss the broad culture ideal 
and humanism of the Roman school, which Da Feltre illus- 
trated and really illuminated and improved, and we miss that 
vital relation to life that Quintilian always recognized and 
built upon. 12 

Sturm's school a culmination and a beginning. — Sturm's 
school is especially interesting from several points of view : — 
I. As already indicated, it shows one side of Quintilian's plan 
of education as the later Renaissance interpreted (or distorted) 
it. 2. It represents a kind of culmination of the city school 
development discussed in a previous chapter; for it was the 
Gymnasium of Strasburg. 3. It represents the beginning of 
modern secondary school development in which the limits of 
secondary education had become rather clearly defined. Only 
a few years after Sturm's death the first secondary school in 
America was established. Sturm's was a type-school. The 
Jesuit secondary schools, which represented organized educa- 
tion for a long time, 13 were copies of this school, which they 
moulded to their purposes. The final development of Renais- 
sance secondary education was thus the starting point for the 
modern period. So incisive was the work of Sturm's school, 
so conspicuous were its relations to the strongest forces in 
Christendom, that it was the commanding influence in second- 

12 Other schools apparently show less tension and less of the formal. 
See Appendix 1 (b). 

13 In fact they were the only examples of organized education, since 
other schools were isolated units rather than parts of a system. 



260 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

ary education. Its importance is not realized fully till we take 
account of another impressive fact closely associated with the 
Renaissance, the remarkable multiplication of secondary 
schools. 14 

In the typical curriculum of the late Renaissance therefore 
Latin was far the largest element. Greek was a lagging minor. 
There was little else. Latin and Latin method overshadowed 
everything in Sturm's school. Hence a knowledge of method 
became a knowledge of Latin method. It was a phase of the 
so-called classical method that, with few changes, predominated 
for centuries. 

Other Renaissance educators — The progressives. — The 
two types of school that we have been studying represent two 
views of education that had influence in their respective 
periods. But the Renaissance discloses noted names besides 
those already mentioned. Men with as keen insight into the 
educational process as that of Da Feltre, far keener than that 
of Sturm, who hardly knew education as a process, were formu- 
lating new principles and sometimes applying them in a limited 
way. 15 If we should generalize from these reformers we 
should get a third type for the period, a prophetic one, that must 
stand side by side with the schools of Da Feltre and Sturm. In 
Sturm's time, or in close proximity to it, we find advocacy of 
new studies, new books, 16 attention to things in place of words, 
mastery of language by use, regard for content and literary 
values, the use of the vernacular as the class-room medium of 
expression, individual investigation and discovery, new school 
houses, better qualifications for teaching, 17 more pedagogical 

14 See page 279. 

15 See Appendix 1 (a). 

16 See Hazlitt, op. cit., Chapter IV ff. Appendix 3 to this chapter 
gives summaries of noted text-books of the period. Conf. De Mont- 
morency, op. cit., 75, and especially 77. 

Bookseller John Dome's account book, which has been preserved, 
shows that ABC books, primers, and new Latin textbooks were his 
" best sellers." Hazlitt, op. cit., 87-8. 

17 Aside from much other evidence of pressure in this direction a 
movement for bettering conditions took definite form in Cambridge 
in 1441 in the establishment of a training school for grammar (Latin) 
teachers for the benefit, particularly, of country schools. Mulcaster was 
perhaps the first Englishman to raise his voice for making a profession 
of that which makes all other professions. See Quick, Educ. Ref., 100. 



THE LATE RENAISSANCE 261 

discipline. Noted reformers were stirring the school world by 
their applications of reformed pedagogy to teaching. 18 In the 
latter part of the nineteenth century, after centuries of waiting, 
the cumulative effect of all this, with more recent additions, 
appeared in the reluctant enrichment of the secondary school 
curriculum and method. 

Some contrasted ideas. — Again, over against these progres- 
sive facts, must be placed others that are less attractive. Text- 
books were still scarce and often not in the hands of pupils. 
It was necessary to have matter copied from dictation, then 
divided, construed, and explained (a bit of method inherited 
from scholasticism). Students took away great copy-books 
containing their acquisitions. Platter tells us that in studying 
Terence the teacher read, and pupils had to decline and conju- 
gate every word of whole comedies. He himself had to learn 
Donatus by heart. 19 Even Melanchthon rings the changes on 
grammatical drill and advocates repeated journeys through the 
grammar, and the learning of all rules by heart. Luther, who 
speaks of learning as an " exercise of the memory, or a gladia- 
torial exercise,'' feelingly characterizes it as pitiable that a boy 
should spend many years only to learn bad Latin sufficient for 
becoming a priest and saying mass. 20 As to favorite books, he 
says that, next to monastic works, Terence and Plautus were 
studied, as the readiest means of learning colloquial Latin. 
He tells us that he himself, at Mansfield, learned some church 
passages, etc., Donatus, the child's grammar, and church music. 
Of " bacchant teachers," 21 who were frequently assistants in 
the schools, he declares that they neither loved nor understood 
the art of teaching better than they did the nature of true 

18 Rabelais' characterization of the old education and his enthusiastic 
presentation of the new show that a new order of things was pushing 
its way to the front. He typified the Renaissance spirit. 

19 Grammars have been thus " learned " in our schools within fifty 
years. 

20 Luther's Schools, — Amer. Jour, of Educ, 24 : 99 ff . 

21 An appreciable element in the schools of the day was of a nomad 
nature. Youths roved the country, either as adventure students, mov- 
ing at will from school to school, and characteristically protected from 
ordinary processes when they broke moral and civil law, or, more pur- 
posefully, seeking some subordinate employment in schools and church. 
Some of our present crudenesses in school customs are inheritances 
from the codes of this time. Amer. Jour, of Educ, 24 : 90 ff., et al. 



262 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

religion, whose servants they professed to be. They did not 
study the character and disposition of pupils, they taught 
mechanically, and they ruled by hard and brutal force. They 
presented a sombre appearance and lived in sombre surround- 
ings, for they wore a dark monastic dress and occupied large 
buildings with gloomy cells. Referring to the character of edu- 
cation the same author informs us that in school life a large 
portion of each forenoon was devoted to the church, and again 
that little attention was given to what was taught, that not a 
single branch of study was taught as it should be, that every- 
thing still wore the garb of the Middle Ages, and that there 
were no experiments or observations in natural philosophy and 
no accurate criticism in language and history. 22 Erasmus 
exclaims as to the profound ignorance of teachers in general in 
such matters as geography and natural history, which were 
needed for the explanation of the classics. 23 Hallam makes 
the education of a gentleman of the first class in England at 
this time consist of reading, writing, considerable familiarity 
with French, and a slight tincture of Latin (though Leach 
adds that the French should probably be reduced and the Latin 
increased). One of our most prominent authorities sums up 
the case for Renaissance method in this way : 

" For the ordinary boy, as for the ordinary teacher, school life, 
as distinguished from university life, was almost as dreary as 
ever. Grammar was the despot and rote-memory the slave. Verb- 
alism again reasserted itself, though now, it is true, with higher 
aims so far as language was concerned. The attempt to intro- 
duce ' real studies/ even history, broke down." 24 

All this was surely in sharp contrast with the work of the 
master teachers whose plans aroused such admiration. The 
work of the latter, it is true, best represented the new epoch, but 

22 Eggleston, op. cit., 260-1, says that commercial subjects acted as 
intruders in the Latin schools as late as the middle of the 18th cen- 
tury. He might use similar language as to other subjects for a much 
later date. 

23 This is one of the most significant observations of the time. In 
earlier days (see Quintilian, who probably followed still older educa- 
tors) it was a fixed practice to correlate the classics and other subjects 
needed for their " explicatio." The fact that even this correlated work 
is now lacking is strong evidence of the dwindling of curriculum ideals. 

24 See School Rev. 4:20QfL; Davidson, Hist, of Educ, 178-9. 



THE LATE RENAISSANCE 263 

they were outnumbered by school masters of smaller calibre and 
narrower attainments. 25 Representations of the period show 
the master dictating and the pupil copying. 26 This was an easy 
attitude to cover any deficiencies, and made teaching possible 
for persons of the most meagre equipment. Hazlitt says of 
England that the majority of masters and ushers perhaps needed 
interlinear helps. They served merely as a medium for con- 
veying lessons found in treatises prepared by the more learned. 27 

State schools. — We have thus to consider several school 
ideals in the Renaissance centuries. There were also several 
school forms from the point of view of organization and rela- 
tions to civic authorities. The period preceding the early uni- 
versities developed a special type of school. 28 The church 
school was prominent everywhere and left no room for competi- 
tion. This type still existed in the period we are studying, but 
it was now overshadowed by other school forms that the more 
independent spirit of succeeding centuries had developed. 
Conditions favored more spontaneity and more variety in school 
polity. More than once reference has been made to the part 
the more democratic spirit and the rising commercial ideas in 
the cities were playing in establishing schools and dictating 
educational policy. The city school thus became the prominent 
factor in public education. 29 But the idea of public control had 
now grown beyond this stage. State schools, the foreshadow- 
ing of state systems, began as early as 1550. 30 These schools, 
however, represented variety in form and organization rather 
than in ideals, studies, or methods. Any school, to have stand- 
ing, must follow the type plan of the Renaissance in these 
respects. 

In all these Renaissance movements, however, we must note 
that the real aim was not to emancipate schools from clerical 

25 See Leach, op. cit., 103 ff. 

26 See frontispieces in favorite textbooks. 

27 Hazlitt, op. cit., 29; conf. 112, 159. 
2 s See Chap. XII. 

29 See Appendix 2, giving results of Leach's investigations as to 
English education of the period. Nohle, ^ op. cit., 29 ff., gives evi- 
dence that a similar state of things existed in Germany. 

30 Nohle, op. cit., 32; De Montmorency, op. cit., 67, 69 ff., 73, 75, 86, 
102-3, 105, 191-06, 20i. Prefaces to old text-books mentioned in the ap- 
pendix show that even state text-books had come into use. 



264 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

influence, but to broaden church schools and to add lay schools 
that should afford, for the rising non-clerical occupations and 
professions of a new civilization, a kind of training essential 
for their survival and growth. 



APPENDIX I 

(a) Some Reformers. 

Agricola in his " De Formando Studio " inveighs against verbalism, 
advocates geography, botany, geology, etc., lays stress on the vernacu- 
lar as a necessary antecedent to Latin work, and would have indi- 
vidual thought and investigation. He is at the same time inspired by the 
new enthusiasm for classical study. (See Mullinger, Camb., 411-12.) 

Erasmus (1467-1536) was an acknowledged leader in the Renais- 
sance. Some bits from his educational views come in well here. Ac- 
cording to him the key to Latin method was the object lesson and the 
literary anecdote. Begin early, he says, when the imitative tendency 
is strong. It is good for the boy to be among talkative people. He 
learns more thoroughly and readily if the thing discussed is depicted, 
and the words are mastered because attached to a vivid object of 
thought. He would have tales from the classics and yEsop. Brief, 
pithy quotations and sayings of illustrious men are to be learned. As 
to grammar he says, " While I appreciate the necessity of this, I 
should wish it taught in the least possible compass and only what is 
best. I have never approved of the custom of keeping boys grinding at 
this subject for several years." He would teach Greek and Latin 
together, making them support one another. Reading Latin authors 
should begin as soon as possible. First should come Terence, whose 
style is pure, terse, colloquial, and whose subjects naturally interest 
the child. Some of the less objectional plays of Plautus might be 
added. Then should come (in this order) Vergil, Horace, Cicero, 
Caesar. Sallust might join the list. These are sufficient for the mastery 
of Latin. (Clark, "Latin of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.") 

We should note Erasmus' advocacy of geography, natural history, 
etc., but as an aid in the study of the classics. His general scheme 
reminds one of Quintilian. 

Melanchthon (1497-1560) was perhaps the most indefatigable in mak- 
ing books and modernizing methods. His plan of teaching reminds one 
of Sturm. 

Luther ^ (1483-1546) and Zwingli ( 1484-153 1) represented more ad- 
vanced views in education than the times could digest. Physical train- 
ing, the study of the vernacular, history and mathematics, and, in 
the direction of method, language by use, and things before words, were 
advocated by one or both of them. The toning of method may be judged 
by Luther's remark that in his time they could learn in " sport." This 



THE LATE RENAISSANCE 265 

would seem to us to be a strange characterization of such education as 
even the new times gave, but it serves to emphasize in our minds the 
drastic and unnatural education of earlier days with which Luther was 
contrasting current education. Luther was a pioneer also in arguing 
for universal education and for a gradation of schools. He found 
discouraging conditions into which he threw his new leaven. In a tract 
entitled " De Constituendis Scholis " he says, " Principio videmus per 
totam Germana scolas collabi, gymnasia studiosorum infrequetia frigere, 
monasteria monarchis profugis deferi." 

Trotzendorf (1490-1556) had an enterprising curriculum in Latin 
and Greek, involving the speaking of Latin exclusively and the writing 
of themes in classical Latin, logic and rhetoric based on Cicero, music, 
natural philosophy, and arithmetic (though it may be that the two latter 
came later,— really after the secondary curriculum. (See Neander.) 
In the early course in Harvard College arithmetic came in the senior 
year. 

Trotzendorf is, however, particularly distinguished for his method 
and his enlightened ideas of government. A remarkable unity of 
feeling between pupil and teacher, a successful scheme of co-operation 
in school government that sounds modern, and pupil-teaching, show the 
vigor and resourcefulness of the man. 

Rabelais (1483-1553) was perhaps more vigorous in his strictures 
on the old and his advocacy of better things than most leaders. He 
would add real studies, teach objectively, and include physical culture 
and manual work in the program for the education of Pantagruel. 
His curriculum included Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee and Arabic, 
arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, the study of nature, and music. Com- 
paring the education of the time with that of his youth he says, " the 
time then was not so proper and fit for learning as at present, neither 
had I plenty of such good masters as thou hast had, for that time 
was darksome, obscured with clouds of ignorance and savoring a little 
of the infelicity and calamity of the Goths, who had, wherever they 
set footing, destroyed all good literature, which in my age hath by the 
divine goodness been restored unto its former light and dignity, and 
that with such amendment and increase of knowledge that now hardly 
should I be admitted unto the first form of the little grammar school 
boys; I say I, who in my youthful days was (and that justly) reputed 
the most learned of that age. ... I see the robbers, hangmen, adven- 
turers, ostlers of to-day more learned than the doctors and preachers 
of my youth." See Quick, Educ. Reformers. 

Neander (1525-1595) had an enterprising curriculum, including a 
wide course of reading in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, logic and rhetoric, 
physics, geography, and history, for which he made text books to 
suit himself. But the secondary period was given chiefly to Latin, Greek, 
Hebrew, and, at the very end of the period, logic and rhetoric, while 
the other studies waited till after the eighteenth year. The advance 
is shown in the new life in classical teaching, in the recognition of 



266 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

new studies, which, though they came late in the curriculum, still could 
claim recognition, and in the questioning of the old. 

Here came in also the great names of Montaigne (I533-I592), Ratke 
(1571-1655), and Comenius (1592-1670), who tried to bring into notice 
a curriculum better adapted to the needs of the times and to the nature 
of the individual to be educated. Thus the mother tongue, nature, 
science, and history were coming to view and winning some attention, 
while more concrete methods and a definite idea of pedagogical prin- 
ciples as a basis for method gave better conditions for interest in the 
educational process. Note, e.g., Montaigne's advocacy of the mother 
tongue as the first object of attention, and of the study of things in 
place of words, and Comenius' devotion to objective work, to school 
organization, in which he provides for a well articulated school system, 
and to a more fruitful course of study in which history, geography, 
science, and mathematics are conspicuous. 

(b) Some Special Schools and Schoolmasters. 

Colet's School, St. Paul's, in which Lily was the great teacher. The 
school was Colet's in the sense that he founded it. He established a pure 
classical curriculum, but informed it with Renaissance ideas, as seen 
in his insistence that the aim should be "the very Roman tongue." In 
gaining this end, however, both modern and ancient authors were 
to be used. In accord with the better pedagogical ideas of the new 
times he also made method more pedagogical. " The best way to learn 
Latin," he says, " is by reading, and not by studying of the grammar, — 
by example, and not by committing rules to memory." St. Paul's was 
the first school in England to teach Greek. 

Early in the next century we find this school enlarging the curriculum 
beyond the bounds left by mediaeval scholasticism. An " Outline of 
Rhetoric for St. Paul's " was brought out in 1639. 

The Ipswich School, under Woolsey, in 1483, offered a more enter- 
prising curriculum than St. Paul's. It included a humanistic study 
of a wider range of literature; but it was a thorough classical school 
largely given to a study of Latin. Woolsey wrote a little treatise on 
the instruction of boys, giving his plan and method : — 

Class 1 : — Grammar, — the eight parts of speech. 

Class 2: — The practical speaking of Latin. Some translation of 
both kinds, with a view to quality of thought in the English-Latin 
translation, and purity of accent in reading Latin. 

Class 3 : — ^Esop and Terence, to form a familiar style. More gram- 
mar. 

Class 4 : — Vergil. More grammar, as to which he says, " But although 
I confess such things are necessary, yet as far as possible we could wish 
them so appointed as not to occupy the more valuable part of the 
day." 

Class 5 : — Cicero, seemingly with reference to style. 

Class 6 : — Caesar and Sallust. Lily's syntax. 



THE LATE RENAISSANCE 267 

Class 7 : — Horace and Ovid. Occasional composition of a verse or 
an epistle. Translation and retro-translation of verse. " Memory 
gems." 

Class 8: — "Higher precepts of grammar." Donatus' figures, etc. 
Any ancient author whatever in the Latin tongue. Thorough treatment 
of the text, including technical points, beauties of style, etc. Careful 
attention to speech in the recreation hour. Occasionally " some pretty 
subject" for a short epistle in the vernacular. Formulae to guide in 
theme writing. 

Harsh discipline and all sorts of tyranny to be avoided ; " for by this 
injurious treatment all sprightliness of genius either is destroyed or is 
at any rate considerably damaged." 

At intervals attention should be relaxed and recreation introduced, 
but recreation of an elegant nature worthy of polite literature. " Even 
with his studies pleasure should be so intimately blended that a boy 
may think it rather a game of teaching than a task." He also cau- 
tions against overexertion, which overwhelms the faculties, and fatigue. 

The curriculum of George Buchanan (1506-1587) covered six years 
and was given to a concentrated Latin and Greek course. Pupils spoke 
Latin and wrote a daily Latin theme. The first reading book was 
Terence, which was followed by Cicero, Ovid, Vergil, and Horace. 
Greek came in the fourth year. 

Ascham (1515-1568), a noted English schoolmaster who divides hon- 
ors with Sturm, was also a student of education. He studied famous 
methods and schemes of earlier days, and formulated one of his own 
which had so much good sense in it that it has found its way to our 
day. He was influenced by Sturm, or better he was a friend of Sturm. 
The influence was perhaps mutual. At any rate he was not a mere 
copyist, but a forceful investigator and originator. His observations 
as to Latin teaching have been used to inspire better teaching at the 
present time. Recently an American teacher has given distinction to 
a Latin book by quoting from Ascham with great approval. 

Ascham advocated the comparative method of teaching Latin, which 
involved inductive features and gave prominence to the vernacular. By 
these means, through imitation, practice, and special exercises, some of 
them, it must be confessed, still dry and formal, he provided an in- 
tensive training calculated to give pupils a real knowledge of Latin. 
Discipline was equally revised in his scheme, and new studies were 
added to the Latin curriculum; at least he included physical training. 

For other programs see Monroe, Thomas Platter and the Educ. 
Ren., 63 ff. 

These views of reformers and details of special schools and school- 
masters indicate the real contributions to education from the Renais- 
sance movement. Almost every one of the men referred to made 
religious training an essential, if not the essential, of school work, thus 
following the traditions of monastic schools which were their intel- 
lectual parents. As has been noted, much school time was given 



268 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

to church service even in the later Renaissance. These traditions, how- 
ever, were re-created and reformed according to Reformation ideals. 
The religious nature of education comes out clearly in the case of 
Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, Colet, Trotzendorf, and may justly be 
assumed in the case of all. The text-books of the days were very re- 
ligious and supplied religious forms. 

APPENDIX II 

Classes of Schools. 

It is interesting to note the different classes of schools which we find 
in this period : — 81 

i. Cathedral schools, — still existing in small numbers. 

2. " College schools," i.e., grammar schools connected with col- 
legiate churches. (Collegiate churches were similar to cathedral 
churches, only they were not so closely connected with the Bishop and 
were not the seat of his government. Grammar schools seem to have 
been a more essential part of a collegiate church than of a cathedral. 
There were large numbers of these schools. 

3. Monastery schools, or schools for which the monasteries were 
trustees. — Comparatively few. 

4. Grammar schools connected with hospitals (almshouses) as a part 
of the foundation. — Few. 

5. Chantry schools, kept by chantry priests. The history of these 
church functionaries and their schools would make a very interesting 
topic. It would perhaps be fair to say that they were religious schools 
of an elementary grade. 

6. Guild schools, — founded by guilds; of grammar school grade. 

7. Independent schools, like St. Paul's. In such cases schools were 
the main object of the foundations. Their object was not joined with 
any ecclesiastical purpose. There was even no requirement that the 
teachers should be priests. 

1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 may be classed together as ecclesiastical. No. 6 
was perhaps similar to city schools and probably had some church 
relations. No. 7 is a new creation. All but 5 were grammar schools, 
and for curriculum and method may be considered together. 

These are the schools found in England. The list for Germany would 
be similar, except that we must add a school which was especially 
typical of that country, the City Latin School, or Gymnasium. 

APPENDIX III 

Some Old Renaissance Text-Books. 

I. Lac Puerorum (Mylk for Chyldren), M. Holti, 1526, first printed 
in 1497. 

31 See Leach, Eng. Schools at the Reformation, Chapters 1-9. 



THE LATE RENAISSANCE 269 

Frontispiece,— a picture of a school room. Windows high. Panelled 
ceiling. Throne-like chair with master seated on it, mild and deliber- 
ate in attitude, but holding a bristling bunch of rods in his right hand, 
while his left is in a position of gesture, as though illustrating some 
of the graphic devices of the book. Children in a circle before him 
sitting on low benches on a flagstone floor. 

Brief abstract of contents. 

1. Dedicatory and explanatory verse in Latin. 

2. Parts of speech, with remarks. 

3. Declension of the article, so-called, i.e., hie. There is a repre- 
sentation of a hand, and a case and its plural are inscribed on each 
finger, the name of the case following the form. The thumb has two 
cases, the nominative on the upper part, the ablative on the lower, — to 
even the declension-forms. 

4. Declension of nouns and remarks. Eight classes of nouns, — 
proper, appellative, substantive, adjective, interrogative, demonstrative, 
reddityf, and relatyf, — but no examples are given. 

5. The a-declension. 

6. The us-declension, with hand device. 

7. Third, fourth, and fifth declensions follow, not graphically ar- 
ranged and in solid black letter paragraphs, — not easy to decipher. 

8. Declension of adjectives as in 7, but all forms are given. 

9. Another graphic hand device, giving a summary of case endings 
of all declensions. 

10. Comparison. 

11. Classification and declension of pronouns, primitive and rela- 
tive. 

12. Conjugation, — general facts followed by inflections: — shewynge 
mode, askynge mode, byddynge mode, wysshynge mode, potencyall 
mode, subjunctyf mode, infinityf mode. 

13. Other parts of speech. 

14. Deffinicyon of nownes (including the common classes, proper, 
appellative, substantive, adjective). "A nowne betokeneth a thing with- 
out any difference of tyme." — "The name of all I may see, fele, or 
perceyve by ony of my fyve wytes is a nowne." 

15. Accidents of nouns. 

16. Accidents of verbs. His definition of a verb is this, "A verb 
betokeneth a thynge with some token of tyme." Verbs are divided into 
substantyve, as sum, existo, maneo; vocatyve, as nomino; adjectyve 
(including all other verbs which do not come under the first two 
classes), as amo, lego. 

17. Accidents of other parts of speech. 

18. The three " concords " and syntax. A curious topic in the con- 
cords or syntax is, "the strength of compelynge case (referring to verbs 
which take the same case after as before). 

The book ends with "Thome More Epigramma" and some Latin 
verses. 



270 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



In this book the attempt to add interest and life to method and to 
relieve the old abstractness is very noticeable. 

2. A Shorte Introduction of Grammar generally to be used, Compyled 
and set forth for the bringing up of all those that intende to attayne 
the knowledge of the Latine tongue.— 1577. 

1. Elizabeth's proclamation commanding the use of this text-book 
for uniformity. 

2. A foreword to the reader on the necessity of a good founda- 
tion. Reasons for the difficulty of attaining this are given : — " Because 
that they who professed the arte of teaching grammar did teach divers 
grammars and not one, and if by chaunce they taught one Grammar, 
yet they did it diversly, and so could not do it all beste, because there 
is but one bestnesse, not only in everything, but also in the manner 
of everything." The writer goes on to say that the first difficulty has 
been avoided by causing " one kinde of Grammar by sundry learned 
men to be diligently drawne, and so to be set out onely everywhere 
to be taught for the use of learners, and for the hurt in chaung- 
ing of schoolmaisters." But he frankly acknowledges that diversity 
of teaching continues and always will, because of human nature. With 
a fine touch of modesty he adds, " It is not amisse, if one seeing by triall 
an easier and readyer way than the common sort of teachers doe, would 
saye what he hath proued." And then he goes on to give the following 
advice and suggestions : — 1. That the " diligent Payster make not 
the scholer haste to much." 2. There should be plenty of examples 
in declensions and conjugations, a matter in which the old grammars 
were noticeably deficient, so that the scholar may know all words. 3. 
"This when he can perfectly doe and hath learned every part, not by 
rote, but by reason, and is cunninger in the understanding of the 
thing than in the rehearsing of the words, — then let him passe to the 
Concordes, to know the agreement of the partes among themselves." 4. 
There should be " playne and sundry examples " and daily practice on 
" declension of verbs," apparently with sentence framing. 5. " When 
these Concordes be well knowne unto them, an easie and a pleasaunt 
payne, they are to come to some preatie booke wherin is contayned 
not only the eloquence of the tongue, but also a good playne lesson 
of honesty and godlinesse," which reminds one of Quintilian. With this 
comes retrotranslation and the learning of syntax rules as occasion 
comes. 6. The " Payster " is to be continually busy with the pupil and 
is not to construe the principle, " there is no haste," into license to teach 
a little and then leave the pupil to himself. 7. Use of Latin is ad- 
vised. 8. The turning of an English book into Latin is more useful 
than ordinary translation. 

3. Analytics of letters. 

4. A Latin prayer and the English translation. 

5. Analytics of parts of speech with declensions and conjugations 



THE LATE RENAISSANCE 271 

rather skilfully laid out. The subjunctive in regular verbs is called 
optative; in sum, etc., and in passives, it is called potential and sub- 
junctive. 

6. The Concordes, — between verb and noun, substantive and adjec- 
tive, antecedent and relative. The second concord is rather strikingly- 
stated: — "An adjective, whether it be a noune, pronoune, or participle, 
agreeeth with his substantive in case, gender, and number." The con- 
cept, adjective, had considerably more extension than at present. 

7. Constructions of nouns, substantives, adjectives, etc. 

All this in black letter and evidently giving the mere essentials of 
grammar. Then follows, in Latin, Lily's Grammar, probably the Brevis- 
sima Institutio. 

Brief abstract of the Institutio. 

1. Guilielmi Lilii ad suos discipulos monita paedagogica, seu carmen 
de maribus, — a poem of about eight lines. 

2. Symbolum Apostolorum (an elaborate Apostles' creed), and a 
Praecatio Dominica. 

3. The Decalog. 

4. Baptismus (Christ's last words to His disciples.) 

5. Coena Dominica (introduction to the Lord's supper.) 

6. Puer orans ante cibum, — four specimens. 

All this shows the close union of church and school. Then follows 
the grammar proper. 

1. Analytics of letters, — more extended and formal than in the Eng- 
lish version preceding. 

2. Eight parts of speech and their accidence, in great detail, but far 
less helpful than in the English treatise, or in Cheever's Latin Acci- 
dence. It goes too much into 'abstractions. Under verbs comes the 
famous Lily's De Simplicium verborum primae conjugationis communi 
praeterito, "-as in praesenti perfectum format in -avi, etc. 

3. The " concords." 

4. Construction of nouns, verbs, pronouns, etc., with examples from 
different authors. Here the Latin part is superior to the English part 
described above, where examples are scarce. 

5. Figures and prosody. 

At the end of the book is a poem of twelve lines, — "Magister dis- 
cipulos ad studia literarum cohortans ; also a " Puer orans ante lec- 
tionem" (prayer), a " Puer orans ante cibum," a " Puer orans post ci- 
bum," and an "oratio matutina." 

3. A 1542 illuminated vellum copy of " Lillij Grammatical 

1. Religious exercises, Latin on one side, English opposite. 

2. Henry Eighth's proclamation directing the use of the book in 
which he says, " Emong the manyfolde busines and most weyghty 
affayres appertayning to our Regall auctoritee and offyce we forgette 



2J2 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

not the tendre babes and the youth of our realme whose good education 
and godly bryngyng up is a greate furniture to the same and cause 
of moche goodnesse." (For full text of a similar proclamation see the 
author's article on the Evolution and Present Status of the Beginner's 
Latin Book, in Jour, of Ped., 16: 191.) 

3. A preface in English, "to the reader." 

4. An introduction to the eight parts of speech in English. 

5. Lily's Carmen de Moribus, the creed in Latin, and other religious 
compositions. 

6. An institutio compendiaria totius grammaticae. 

7. Foreword in Latin to teachers and an "ad lectionem" in Latin 
verse. 

8. The accidence, similar to that in the Lily previously described. 

9. Syntax and prosody in Latin. 

These books are all of small compass. They will serve to show the 
nature of the new textbooks, — the effort to simplify and explain, and 
the mixed character of the books (English-Latin, etc.), indicating a 
transition period. The contrast between these books and the ponderous 
volumes of grammar abstractions of an earlier period, as described 
in the Appendix to Chapter XII, is striking. In Milton's " Digest of 
Accidence and Grammar " he complains that grammar as previously 
taught consumed ten years of one's life. 



XVII 

NOTABLE CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE RENAISSANCE TO SECONDARY 
EDUCATION — A GENERAL SUMMARY 

Contrasts in the period. — As has already been indicated 
the Renaissance was a complex educational period. Its pecul- 
iar complexity was due to the fact that it was a transition 
period. Hence we find striking contrasts side by side. The 
old scholastic and monastic ideas of course projected them- 
selves into succeeding periods. They were so deeply rooted 
and had been so wide-spread and popular that they did not 
easily succumb to newer ideas. But the Revival had brought 
forward forces and ideas that had more life and weight and 
agreed far better with modern pedagogical principles. Any 
period presenting such conditions must show variety and con- 
trasts before settling upon one type to be projected into the 
new future. Amid this variety what were the real contribu- 
tions with which we should credit the Renaissance? What 
was the school-type of this epoch, — curriculum, method, aim ? 

Old forms still cling, but are waning. — Deeply embedded in 
the educational polity of the period, as has been suggested, were 
the theory and practice represented by curricula and methods 
that the leaders of the new times were lashing and ridiculing. 
They were so prevalent and so conspicuous for at least part of 
the period that they might almost seem characteristic. But 
they were merely inheritances. They held over with schools 
which came from previous periods. They thus looked to the 
past and were not at all representative of the times. 1 

New forms, — prophetic. — Again, using the best view-points 
and looking as far into the future as these looked into the past, 
we find a school type 1 that represented the underlying life of 

1 According to Luther's estimate the comparative efficiency of the 
new and old would be well expressed by the ratio 20 : 3, or perhaps even 
40: 3. Again he says that they can now learn in three years more than 
formerly in universities and cloisters. 

273 



274 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

the Renaissance, but had not yet taken hold of the general 
school public and organized itself into definite forms. This was 
the type argued by Rabelais and Ratke, 2 Comenius 2 and 
Luther. The curriculum forming under the influence of this 
new pedagogy included Latin, Greek, history, geography and 
other sciences, civics, commercial subjects, 3 and physical train- 
ing. The method had more of the concrete and more regard 
for the nature of the child. We shall look for this type to 
assert itself in some future century. Neither of these two 
types answers our query. 

Da Feltre's school not the type. — If we turn to Da Feltre's 
school we shall still come short of our quest, for it did not be- 
come a type. Sturm's school comes nearer the purpose. It 
was a conspicuous model in its day. Ascham profited by it in 
English education. Its influence extended far into the future. 
It represented the real legacy of the Renaissance, as far as 
school forms are concerned. 

The final Renaissance curriculum and method. — If then 
we take Sturm's curriculum, — grammar in the narrow sense, 
literature (more to enforce and cultivate style than for its own 
sake), rhetoric, logic, and a mere touch of mathematics, — his 
formal method, in which memory work, imitation, and incessant 
practice predominated (a revived classical method), and his 
aim, linguistic training of an intense type, we have a close 
approximation to the final influence of the Renaissance. And 
if we remember that many, probably the majority, of the schools 
still clung to a lower ideal that looked toward the past, we 
shall realize in a degree the actual state of the schools of the 
day, and we may, in a very general way, accept Laurie's state- 
ment 4 as a kind of summary estimate of Renaissance schools. 

2 These two educators came on the border line between this period 
and the next. They may, however, be appropriately mentioned here. 

3 Commercial subjects had an interesting experience in England. 
They were added to the grammar school curriculum, but the court be- 
fore which school questions frequently came, because of the desire of 
the old authorities to keep out teachers not of their cloth, or to keep the 
old curriculum pure, decided in at least one case that the legal cur- 
riculum was a classical one. The terms of endowment served as con- 
servative forces. — De Montmorency, op. cit., 182-3. 

4 See Chapter XVI, p. 262. 



CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE RENAISSANCE 275 

Memory was still the key to method. Dictation, copying, and 
repetition were still familiar terms. 

An interesting episode at Cambridge. — The precedence and 
predominance of grammar are well illustrated by a bit of his- 
tory from the University of Cambridge. The University stat- 
utes of 1550 substituted mathematics for grammar as the initial 
study for youths fresh from school, but the statutes of Eliza- 
beth, fifty years later, returned grammar to its old place. Then 
elementary rules of arithmetic and definitions, axioms, and a 
few propositions from Euclid's first book sufficed for mathe- 
matics, and the study of geography, history, and astronomy 
was far behind the times, neglecting the newer development and 
clinging to things that were ancient. 5 Elizabeth was Ascham's 
exemplary scholar in the classics. It was quite in keeping with 
the pseudo-humanism of her training to revert to grammar as 
the great agent of education. In schools generally, as well as 
in the universities, grammar and grammar methods probably 
held their own. The university " arts course " well reflected 
the Renaissance characteristics of secondary education, for it 
was really of a secondary nature. 

But there were some gains, and some germinal ideas that had 
already begun to work, of which any summary of the Renais- 
sance must take account. Otherwise we fail to give the period 
just characterization, and to distinguish it from previous 
periods. The gains were in many directions : 

'Gains over previous periods. — 1. A more effective 
method. — There was a more efficient method, giving more life 
to Latin teaching, which was the principal part of school work. 
Instruction was also organized with more force and precision, 
as seen in various schools described in text and appendices. 

2. The period gave to the school the things that formed the 
foundation of the curriculum, in place of the shadow of things 
found in dry epitomes that contained only the gleanings of 
past centuries. 

3. Again, schools were, in the aggregate, more concerned 

5 In the middle of the 16th century there was complaint as to the 
state of learning in the Universities where students were mere " pueri." 
See Mullinger. 



276 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

with wholes in place of fragments of the classics and with a 
wider range of reading, than in previous periods. There were, 
therefore, generally speaking, more substance and less form 
than there had been since Roman times. Latin authors and, to 
a slight extent, Greek authors again lived with students and 
gave of their personality and vitality. This change brought 
students into contact with a wider range of interests. Even- 
tually Renaissance education sank to a fragmentary treatment 
of many authors for the sake of form, but it was never char- 
acterized by the paucity of interest that appeared in previous 
epochs. 

4. New text-books in various subjects. — The Renaissance 
gave new text-books. Latin authors must be studied through 
books, and it makes a great deal of difference what form the 
book takes. Previously, when the book was only in the mas- 
ter's hands, it mattered little what its character was; all 
depended on the ability and enterprise of the teacher in pre- 
senting its contents. 6 Now the printing press made it possible 
to have books more frequently in the pupil's hands, though 
such books, as we have already seen, were still scarce. There 
was a good deal of activity in preparing books for the schools. 
Sturm and Melanchthon busied themselves in this direction. 
They edited the classical authors. Melanchthon even made a 
book on physics. 7 From a general bibliography in the British 
Museum it appears that books on chemistry, natural philosophy, 
natural history, geometry, geography, history, etc., some in 
Latin, some in English, appeared in great numbers before 1700, 
beginning in the fifteenth century. But as yet only the old 
subjects were represented generally in the secondary schools. 8 
We may illustrate the advance in text-books by reference to the 
most typical subject in the curriculum, — Latin grammar. 

Grammar was the foundation subject in the spontaneous life 
of the early Renaissance. It was the central subject in the 

6 As a matter of fact, up to the early university period teachers took 
the easiest way of conveying knowledge to pupils, — dictation, copy- 
ing, memorizing. 

7 Physics was still a composite subject, including astronomy, meta- 
physical questions, etc. 

8 The text book industry is again emphasized in another valuable 
bibliography, " Repertoire de Ouvrages Pedagogiques du XVIe Siecle." 



CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE RENAISSANCE 277 

curriculum of the later Renaissance period, in which form 
gained precedence over substance, and the main stress in school 
work was placed upon learning the language rather than upon 
studying to appreciate that of which the language was a vehicle. 
When form is dominant, formal and abstract methods, with 
the dry discipline of artificial study and premature logical 
analysis, usurp the place of developmental discipline. The lat- 
ter follows natural growth, takes advantage of the natural 
interests of the pupil, and develops new interests by genetic as 
opposed to formal principles. Grammar often became such a 
dry and barren routine of memory work and drill that it actually 
tyrannized in the school, till, out of the new enthusiasm in edu- 
cation and out of the restiveness caused by outworn methods 
and material, came a demand for modern grammars, — simplifi- 
cations of the heavy and technical treatises of the earlier time. 
Especially, as Latin declined as a spoken language, it became 
necessary to put more illustrative material into text-books. 

New grammars. — It is very interesting to look over some 
of the grammars and introductory Latin books that were issued 
at this time and came with increasing frequency in the follow- 
ing centuries. They might almost be called Latin primers, so 
far as size is concerned, but they are really older grammars 
abbreviated and simplified and made more interesting. They 
appealed to young minds, and, as compared with older books, 
gave a touch of the concrete. The emphatic way in which 
these authors treated the subject argues the prevalence of other 
views. 9 According to Hazlitt the first clear approach to our 
modern grammars was Robertson's edition of Lily, published in 
1530. This was all in Latin. Milton made a digest of acci- 
dence and grammar, remarking that by the ordinary course of 
procedure ten years of one's life were consumed by grammar. 
It should also be noted that a very vigorous movement set in 
at this time in England to teach Latin through the English, as 
seen by books of the period presenting the " true method of 
teaching the Latin tongue by the English." 10 

9 Occasionally a frontispiece is added. It tells quite as much as to 
pedagogical customs as the book itself. It represents the teacher as 
dictating and the pupil copying. 

10 In Germany too some attention was given to the vernacular. 
Schools made some use of it in teaching Latin. 



278 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

It will be interesting to look more closely at a few of these 
old books. Brief descriptions of two or three that the author 
has had an opportunity to examine have been given in an 
appendix to Chapter XVI. 11 

5. Vernacular and commercial subjects. — The vernacular 
and commercial studies were pushing into the schools. It has 
just been shown that English and German were coming to be 
media of instruction in the classics in their respective countries. 
The same was probably true of French. But this is not the 
only way in which the vernacular was claiming its rights in dif- 
ferent countries. It was the basis of elementary education 
now, showing not only that modern languages had developed 
toward the literary stage, but that popular education of a prac- 
tical sort was coming to its own. As to commercial subjects, 
they affected both the elementary and the secondary school. 
That they should come into elementary education, or that ele- 
mentary education should become practical and popular, might 
call for small comment or opposition, but that they should 
invade the precincts of the old grammar or Latin school, which 
were preempted for and by older subjects, was a very different 
matter. The dubious statements of those who feared that the 
foundation of things educational were to be upset by the intru- 
sion of these plebeian subjects into old established curricula 12 
shows not merely conservatism, but the aristocratic and even 
autocratic nature of educational opinion of the day. It reminds 
us of more recent outcries. The coming of these modern sub- 
jects, however, was one of the most significant signs of the edu- 
cational times. 

6. Relations of secondary school and higher school. — 
The grammar schools, through the improvement of their pro- 
grams and the vigor of their work, were coming up to the meas- 
ure of real preparatory schools, and thus were filling the gap 
that the university felt when it established grammar schools of 
its own. They even took a part of the university curriculum 
and thus awakened the jealousy of the superior institution. 
The university in turn tried to dictate the policy of the lower 
school. Platter tells us that the university authorities requested 

11 See Appendix 3, last chapter. 

12 See Green, Town Life in the Fifteenth Century, II : 12 ff. 



CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE RENAISSANCE 279 

him to get their sanction before offering his reading courses. 13 
The times were ripening for the separation of secondary and 
higher education in some of their relations. . 

7. Great activity in establishing secondary schools. — The 
Renaissance was distinguished by the rapid increase of second- 
ary schools. Here we touch one of its most important charac- 
teristics. We should expect just such results from the pro- 
gressive spirit of the period. Three influences were now push- 
ing education on, the Church, the State, 14 and the Reformers. 
From the middle of the sixteenth century, in England, the 
State took a decided hand in promoting education, and its influ- 
ence elsewhere began as early as this. The indications are that 
all children were assumed to be taught in grammar schools or 
by private tutors. 15 There was a period preceding the Refor- 
mation when education was more flourishing than at a much 
later date. Leach assures us that at the Reformation there 
were more grammar schools in England, in proportion to the 
population, than in the middle of the nineteenth century, and 
that a very large proportion of the population, — larger than at 
the end of the nineteenth century, — had access to the schools. 16 
Hazlitt affirms that more grammar schools were established 
within thirty years of the Reformation than in three hundred 
years before. 17 Again Nohle speaks of the spread of schools 
through all the towns of Germany. 18 There was thus a wide- 
spread movement confined to no section and to no nation. 

13 See Platter's account of his school experiences, Amer. Jour, of 
Education 5 : 79 ff. ; 24 : 101 ; also Monroe's Thomas Platter, etc. 

14 Towns established schools at a much earlier date. 

15 This brought educational competition. It was probably found in 
every town of importance. Great effort was made on the part of the 
older grammar schools to maintain a monopoly of education. This 
was probably largely due to religious motives, as seen by statutes and 
ordinances. It was an effort to keep dissenters from intruding. The 
old grammar schools were a part of the organization of the old estab- 
lished church. But we are bound to suppose that financial motives also 
had an influence. School teaching was not only a profession, but a 
financial venture. 

16 Leach, op. cit. 

1 7 Hazlitt, op. cit. 

18 See Report of U. S. Com. of Educ, 1877-8, I: 22 (Nohle, History 
of the German School System). 

This progress of secondary schools should be associated with the 
Reniassance because it was a natural outcome of the Reniassance spirit. 



2 8o THE HIGH SCHOOL 

The earnestness of our early colonists in providing secondary 
educational facilities was a reflex of educational enterprise in 
the old world. They were used to educational advantages 
there ; they must have them here. 

Who attended schools. — We do not see the full significance 
of these facts as to educational opportunities unless we note 
the constituency of the schools. De Montmorency, who has 
gone into a portion of the evolution of English education in 
great detail, 19 claims that in England the schools' chief patrons, 
before 1406, were of the free non-gentle class. He asserts that 
they were attended by the children of the burgage tenants in 
towns, by the children of freeholders, and copyholders, and, in 
many cases, by the children of people of the lower class. 20 
The policy and character of the lord and his spiritual advisers 
in a lay fee, not the financial ability of the people, determined 
school-going. It would seem that the nobles were less inclined 
to schools than were others. They had other interests. 
Schooling was beneath them. War and knightly arts were for 
them. All this is in sharp contrast with conditions somewhat 
later, when secondary schools gained among the higher born 
and lost among the people, so that in England the grammar 
schools were almost preempted by the higher and higher middle 
classes. This was due of course to the shifting of economic 
and political conditions, which, now that the days of chivalry 
were over, turned the thoughts of the gentle from warlike to 
civil pursuits. 

This wide-spread ministry of secondary education is exactly 

19 See his State Intervention in Eng. Educ., 25 ff. 

20 This is one of the most striking and interesting characteristics of 
the period. The evidence is so strong that it cannot be doubted. Its 
implications, however, may not extend as far as would appear at first 
sight. Secondary schools of Europe generally have not been so clearly 
differentiated as our high schools. The grammar school was an ele- 
mentary school and secondary school combined, receiving a boy at about 
nine, or even at a lower age, giving him some preliminary schooling, 
and then introducing him to genuine secondary school work. How 
far the average pupil went in the grammar school, whether beyond 
the elementary section, it is evidently impossible to tell, as it was not 
an age of statistics. But even tho attendance at the secondary part of 
secondary schools may not have been as great as the statements might 
seem to imply, the growth of schools and the extent of school at- 
tendance would be hardly less remarkable. 



CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE RENAISSANCE 281 

in accord with the informing and buoyant spirit of the times, 
and makes the Renaissance period still more conspicuous and 
more strikingly prophetic. 

New sponsors. — It is especially interesting, in connection 
with this multiplication of schools, to note the new agencies at 
work. Schools were no longer the offspring merely of the 
Church. Other forces, political and commercial, had brought 
new patrons and sponsors. 21 Certainly the enterprise in found- 
ing schools in England owed much to industrial ambition. The 
very names of the schools are witnesses to this. 22 Similar 
forces were at work elsewhere, as is evident from what has 
been said in previous chapters. 23 

8. Service of the Renaissance to independent thinking 
and investigation. — The Renaissance was a vestibule to a 
period of individual thought and investigation. It prepared the 
way by awakening and stimulating fresh thought. It also 
itself furnished examples of independent thought and was 
characterized by vigorous investigation into things of the past 
and by the development of the new science of philology. It 
was, however, too much absorbed in a study of the past to 
warrant any considerable claim to independence and an investi- 
gative spirit. It rested on authority, but took a new attitude 
toward it ; it was content only with primary, not with second- 
ary, authority. It was thus an essential agent in the develop- 
ment of new mental activity and the establishment of new men- 
tal attitudes, and it made some notable beginnings in these 
directions. 

All these things affected the secondary school, but they af- 
fected its spirit more than its form. As already indicated, the 
curriculum was the same as before in name, but not in sub- 

21 It is interesting to note what seem to be the leading motives in the 
spread of schools. Hazlitt says that, not only in this epoch, but to the 
present time, the force that has promoted education has come from 
either political or commercial motives. 

22 Note Merchant Tailors' School and many others. 

23 While considering these estimates of the extent of education we 
must also remember that Luther complained that the great mass of 
youth were wholly destitute of education. He may, however, have been 
speaking of earlier days before the new movement, in which he him- 
self was a leading spirit, was fairly under way. Again pupils might go 
to school without getting much, if we are to credit some accounts. 



282 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

stance, and often not in method. There was a new enthusiasm 
in the old studies, and they were more humanely and peda- 
gogically applied to education, — at least in certain cases; the 
trend was that way. A feeling was therefore growing for some 
sides of secondary school life neglected before. But in spite 
of wholesome modifications education was still very bare and 
formal. The intellectual life of the adolescent was to a consid- 
erable extent as obscure as ever. The secondary curriculum 
came to be associated as a matter of course with the limited 
interests that the Renaissance magnified. 24 The Renaissance 
leaders and their successors so rung the changes here, so naively 
assumed and so persuasively persuaded men that they had the 
true fundamentals of education, that belief in it became an 
instinct. Pupils of one generation became the teachers of the 
next and handed the tradition on. 

The school form which became stereotyped may be outlined 
as follows: 

I. Aim. — Humanistic, I, in the true sense of the word; 2, 
later, in the more formal sense,— to make the pupil master of 
a pure classical style. But character as an aim in education 
was coming to notice. 25 As shown on page 274, the later 
interpretation of the aim represented the final influence of the 
Renaissance. 

II. Curriculum. — I.Latin (occasionally Greek). Wider 
reading, though still limited. A strong set toward the formal 
discipline idea and toward grammar and rhetoric as the ideal 
subjects. Rhetoric was merely a part of Latin. 2. Logic. 
3. Elementary work in number. 

III. Method : — Intense discipline of " memory," and prac- 
tice to command style (relieved by elements of the natural 
method inevitable at a time when Latin was the language of 
the school-room). We find a strong set toward " formal disci- 

24 At a little later date Pestalozzi's intuition rightly estimated the 
curriculum when he said, " We imagined in our boyish days that we 
could prepare ourselves by the superficial school knowledge of the life 
of Greek and Roman citizens for the restrictel life of citizens in a 
Swiss Canton." 

25 See Report of U. S. Com. of Educ, 1899, pp. 47-8 ; Elyot's Gov- 
ernour ; Laurie, op. cit., 38-42 ; also the outline of Da Feltre's school in 
Chap. XV. 



CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE RENAISSANCE 283 

pline." Sternness, strictness, stiffness were prevailing charac- 
teristics of general management, though emphasis was laid on 
the opposite characteristics in certain cases. Opinions as to 
discipline were re-forming. 

The rank and file of schoolmasters were probably mere 
givers of tasks and hearers of lessons, — men of narrow 
attainments. 

Sturm was the master moulder of this school form. The 
main elements of his system, Latin and Latin method, were 
prominent, not to say predominant in succeeding school pro- 
grams for several centuries. 26 The chief changes made in his 
system in following centuries seem to have been, that the wor- 
ship of disciplinary Latin teaching was substituted for the 
worship of the stylistic, and that the study of mathematics was 
added as a disciplinary agency. Down to our time men have 
worshipped the great schoolmaster of the sixteenth century 
rather more than the far greater master of the first. They 
have thus emphasized form rather than content. 27 Till within 
the last fifty years secondary education has been limited in 
large measure to a superficial knowledge of ancient civiliza- 
tion (for that is all the average student gained), a small grasp 
of its language, an elementary study of mathematics, and a still 
slighter study, if it should be called study, of modern literature 
and history. 

Persistence of Renaissance ideals. — Such results follow 
from a rather passive acceptance of the influence, and acqui- 
escence in the ideas, of Sturm and the Sturmians. The 
Renaissance and a few succeeding years did the thinking for 
secondary education, so that the schools, till very recent times, 
have lived largely on inheritances. That people as a rule do 
comparatively little thinking and get most of their judgments 
ready-made, as Titchener claims, would seem to find support 
here. It has been hard therefore to modify views as to the 
proper studies, and particularly the proper kind of study, for 
adolescents. What was in exact accord with conditions, 

26 See an article on the Evolution of Latin Method in the Journal of 
Ped., 16: 191. 

27 There have been spasmodic revivals of the humanistic spirit, but 
the conclusion here stated seems to represent best the settled policy of 
the schools. 



284 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

political, social, and intellectual, at first, has been growing far- 
ther and farther away from them, so far as matter is con- 
cerned. Method did not even then accord with intellectual 
demands, because it lacked one of the essential elements of 
method. Later it did not accord even with political and social 
demands. 

To be more specific, autocratic conditions favor authority 
in education, — the learning of authoritative forms and 
formulae, the mastery (sometimes only verbal) of others' 
thinking in place of independent thinking, the following of 
traditional lines in place of initiative, the static in place of the 
dynamic. Rising democracy required the second alternatives 
rather than the first, and it has suffered in genuine develop- 
ment because matter and methods that accorded with social 
conditions of the late Middle Ages and the beginnings of mod- 
ern centuries were projected into centuries that required some- 
thing more accordant with their spirit. The times changed, 
but curriculum and method, which should respond rather 
readily to new views and policies, were fixed in hard and fast 
lines and were essentially unresponsive. The oxygen of better 
pedagogy from time to time gave an appearance of life, but 
there followed relapses into the coldness and dullness of the 
formal again. The momentum gained from this long assur- 
ance kept the secondary school narrow for ages. The 
Renaissance was in an important sense the source of this 
momentum. When all is said we must remember that it trans- 
mitted to America ideals that gave pupils, after seven or eight 
years in the grammar school, Latin, a little English, and no 
arithmetic. It is here that American secondary education 
begins. 



XVIII 

SEVENTEENTH-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY MOVEMENTS IN 
SECONDARY EDUCATION 

What the Renaissance fixed in secondary school schemes. 
— From what has been said it is evident that the Renaissance 
formulated a very definite curriculum and method. These 
were so circumscribed and the field covered was so small that 
the general plan could be kept well in hand. Men knew just 
where they were and were never at loss to choose their course. 
The subjects we have noted were fixed strongly in the second- 
ary school, — so strongly that nothing could shake them. 
Method, too, established itself. As indicated in the last chap- 
ter, however, one change was to come when Latin ceased to be 
the language of school and class-room. We have seen that 
even in the Renaissance a movement to use the vernacular was 
initiated. When the change came, the beginner's Latin book 
with its exercises, Latin-vernacular and vernacular-Latin, was 
on the way. The way led through simplified grammars, 1 sup- 
plementary reading books, and groups of exercises that were 
an amelioration of the older grammar work, but still a severe 
tax on the memory and youthful spirit often incommensurate 
with the advantages gained. Occasionally a man of larger 
views and finer feelings for educational values tried to reform 
Latin teaching, but this was a minor episode, not a typical one. 2 

The classical method. — Method finally issued in a long 
series of exercises, bare and formal, to give mastery of Latin 
vocabulary, forms, and syntax, while Latin authors came to be 
used as means of grammatical drill quite as much as for any 

1 We found that the more progressive and vigorous educational spirit 
of the Renaissance began this evolution by simplifying grammars and 
adding more interest and spontaneity to the beginner's work.^ 

2 See an article in the Journal of Pedagogy, 16 : 191 ff., giving the 
evolution of Latin method and the Beginner's Latin Book. 

285 



286 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

culture value. Less was read in four years than should be 
read in a single year with any worthy method or ideal. This 
was the classical method. It has been modified and relieved 
of some of its crudeness, and attempts have been made at 
reform, but it remains to-day as the foundation and more than 
the foundation of Latin method. Its main outlines appear in 
the Renaissance and more clearly in the near years afterwards. 
We begin the period following the Renaissance then with a 
clearly cut curriculum and method well anchored in the schools. 

But men are never satisfied with steadfast gaze in any one 
direction nor with the acceptance of ancient authority, which 
were in effect the general characteristics of the Renaissance. 
However inviting the prospect, as the evolution proceeds men 
finally grow restless. They need new scenes or new occupa- 
tions, and they need new thought ; — in this case they thought 
nearer home. 

A new curriculum and method. — Ever since the Saracens 
stirred the intellect of Europe, and the rising university move- 
ment sharpened wits, and the Renaissance opened a new 
(albeit an old) world, a new curriculum and method could be 
seen in shadowy outlines. The movements just referred to 
had disclosed wonderful achievements of the past that took 
hold of men's imaginations and stirred to great things. They 
had set men thinking and working enthusiastically in fresh 
ways, though along paths trodden before. They had there- 
fore been a stimulus to new ways and means in education. 
With this momentum, to be increased by new forces that were 
soon to appear, the new curriculum and the new method were 
bound to come and claim the right to a place in the schools. 

The quest of the real. — As noted in the last chapters a 
Renaissance logically issues in a return to realities, — realities 
of all sorts. We found, however, that the Renaissance we 
have studied betook itself most naturally to realities in a limited 
field ; these were in fact the only realities that existed. The 
Renaissance itself gave little, and crystallized and systematized 
less, that was new and seemingly worth serious study. But 
other realities were to appear and were to invite acquaintance 
and investigation. There was to be nothing partial and lim- 
ited. It is well to note, however, that vigorous thinking in 



SEVENTEENTH-EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES 287 

narrow lines makes larger thinking possible. The Renaissance, 
by re-thinking great thoughts, and by re- following great 
processes with new vigor and enthusiasm, was stimulating the 
intellect for new conquests, if opportunity offered. There 
were influences at work that would make the opportunity. 

Signs of new times.— After the ancient turmoil the world 
rested from intense attention to its causes and effects, and 
directed its attention to other things. A new phase of devel- 
opment resulted. Discoveries, inventions, travels, the opening 
up of new trade-routes, the growth and broadening of indus- 
trial life, commercial competition, the spread of ideas of cul- 
ture, the growth in standards of living creating new demands 
to be supplied — all this caused the re-grouping and specializa- 
tion of experiences. Each new and specialized body of experi- 
ences crystallized modes of procedure, formulae, laws, prin- 
ciples that must be possessed in a vital way by the newer 
generation, if the occupation or interest in question was to hold 
its own. At the same time, as individual responsibility and 
initiative were developing, individuals within the new industrial 
or professional or cultural groups must become experts to win 
their way by competition. General training and the old agency 
of apprenticeship would not long be sufficient. A culture idea 
and the idea of special training for special purposes must 
attach themselves to these new interests. Particularly the need 
of technical training, as a basis for success in the new technical 
pursuits, began to be keenly felt. It is easy to see, when all the 
circumstances are taken into account, that the key to the new 
ideas was mastery of environment. 

The way to individual initiative. — The natural order of 
evolution in such matters is this : — First comes the tribal idea, 
under various forms and modifications, by which the com- 
munity gives the boy the exact knowledge developed by experi- 
ence, either through group teaching and rote-method, or 
(later) through apprenticeship (which is only the tribal idea 
modified). 2. Then appears the individual idea, which is cal- 
culated to make possible larger advance, because a group of 
more or less independent individuals, each having power of 
initiative, tries more paths to progress than are open to mass 
movements. This training has several stages from more or 



288 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

less empirical work to that which gives insight into the inner 
meaning of processes, a comprehensive knowledge of scien- 
tific principles and laws, and power to formulate hypotheses 
and theories. We have now, through various lines of develop- 
ment, reached securely the edge of the latter form of educa- 
tion. 3 Even the Romans had much of the tribal idea in their 
education, and they stood like a wall between Greece and 
Western Europe, — between the best of the ancient world and 
the ideals of the modern world. 

New studies and books. — There is no better indication of 
the new order of things than the fact that geography and his- 
tory were becoming sciences, that groups of nature-facts were 
crystallizing into sciences, and that exact science was growing 
and coming nearer adolescent comprehension. Facts must first 
be classified, before they become objects of thought and study 
in school. A select body of men had been engaged in isolated 
studies in these great subjects — in gathering and classifying 
facts. But such things are not for the few, except in the 
initial stages of development. From sentiment and from prac- 
tical notions, as well as from a desire to preserve and promote 
acquisition, sciences, of whatever kind, naturally become sim- 
plified so that young minds may be inducted into the elements 
of great subjects. Thus text-books on new grammar and 
rhetoric and on physics, algebra, and history were being writ- 
ten. 4 Other books were to follow. 

Leaders. — Aside from these book-makers and students of 
great subjects there were, scattered through the years, leaders 
of another kind, who touched education in a general or special 
way, and who proposed, and to some extent put into practical 
use, new school programs and methods. They were men 
whose minds were in close touch with the times, rather than 
absorbed by admiration of the past. We have already noticed 
Rabelais, Ratke, Comenius, and Montaigne. Others continued 

3 This was begun by the Sophists in Greece in a limited way, but 
was interrupted. 

It is but fair to say, however, that new ideals and forms needed 
to be settled before the idea started by the Sophists could be safely 
carried out. 

4 See Chapter XVII and Appendix to Chapter XVI, and compare 
with the epitome-text-books of Chapter XII. 



SEVENTEENTH-EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES 289 

their vigorous and virile thinking. Bacon, Descartes, Milton, 
Locke, Leibnitz and Fenelon, to mention only a few of the 
great company, were opening up new subjects, or new modes 
of approaching subjects, and were suggesting new curricula, 
while "teaching congregations" of the reform type, through 
the solidarity of organization, were spreading new ideas in a 
practical way. These leaders in educational thought were con- 
fined to no country, so that new things in education were mak- 
ing themselves felt everywhere. The city school, which had 
taken root particularly on the Continent, offered special oppor- 
tunity for progress and organization in the new lines. In 
England more depended on public sentiment as expressed 
through private enterprise. 

A new curriculum. — Thus through various agencies came 
results of a very practical nature. For example, Leibnitz pro- 
posed a curriculum in which logic, mathematics, physics, geog- 
raphy, and language were the most important studies; but, 
what is more significant, he argued that the place of any study 
in the curriculum depended upon relations to society and must 
be regulated by needs judged from this view-point. At about 
the same time Milton was formulating this curriculum: — 
religious instruction, classics, mathematics, geography, natural 
philosophy, architecture, engineering, navigation, anatomy, and 
medicine, — all to be completed by the time the boy was sixteen 
years old. The academies of the Dissenters were also putting 
new and independent curricula into operation. So far as sec- 
ondary studies are concerned, we might summarize the views 
of these men and bodies of men, and of others of the period, in 
some such curriculum as this : natural science, physics, mathe- 
matics, history, and the vernacular, in addition to the old trio. 

The Ritteracademie. — But there was still another force 
to be reckoned with. Under French genius, chivalry, which 
had been a concrete and therefore taking way of expressing 
old Teutonic virtues combined with Christian graces, had, 
under current influences, flowered in a new school, or, at any 
rate, in new school ideas. The " seven knightly arts " took 
precedence of the older seven arts, thus giving prominence to 
the physical side of education. The old Latin curriculum was 
still tolerated, but in the background, while in front, com- 



290 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

manding the chief attention, were mathematics and physics 
with their applications, modern languages, geography, the new 
political science, political history, jurisprudence, statistics, 
heraldry, and genealogy. Such a curriculum was calculated 
to awaken greater enthusiasm and spontaneity than the old 
one. Just before and after the Thirty Years' War French 
influence was strong with the nobility of Germany, and the 
new school ideas followed this influence and so had wider 
application. Here we have the so-called Ritteracademie. 

Slow progress. — All these influences had a cumulative effect 
and gave rise to the movement that we call the " Enlighten- 
ment." With the innovations in method emphasized by Bacon, 
who brought men's attention anew and more fully to objective, 
observational, and experimental work, and with the innova- 
tions in curriculum inspired from so many sources, a new 
school form must come. A new education was growing. 
" For a hundred years it grew beside its wise mother," like 
Hesiod's typical youth of the Silver Age. No doubt it would 
have had a shorter infancy, had not a new turmoil broken out. 
Schools have always been at the mercy of politics. The new 
turmoil was primarily religious, but practically political. 5 It 
so far reduced Central Europe, the most promising field for 
educational advance at this time, that a substantial portion of 
it reverted almost to its natural state, so great was the destruc- 
tion in all lines and so nearly did the human element come to 
extinction. Education could not flourish at such a time. 6 But 
the advance in educational opinion was not changed in direc- 
tion, however much it may have been retarded in speed. 
Remarkable as it may seem, when we consider the deplorable 
condition of Germany, even there men found time to intro- 
duce some progressive features into school polity. 

The new secondary school and its founders. — The hundred 
years finally brought the full crystallization of the new ideas 
in the new school. At this time Francke (1663-1727), gath- 
ering up the best in education and inspired by the true teacher- 

s The Thirty Years' War, (1618-1648). 

^Little more than a third of the population of Germany survived. 
Cities were destroyed ; property was ruined ; the foundations of indus- 
try were uprooted. 



SEVENTEENTH-EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES 291 

spirit, founded a school whose curriculum gave effective recog- 
nition to mathematics, history, geography, and science. It 
was Francke who really inspired this new school form that was 
calculated for the people and better suited to their needs than 
older forms. It was Semler and Hecker who gave it a fixed 
position with an appropriate name. Thus came the Real- 
schule, toward the middle of the eighteenth century. It offered 
as its curriculum religion, ethics, German, French, Latin, his- 
tory, geography, arithmetic, elementary geometry, mechanics, 
architecture, writing, and drawing. It was not only the cur- 
riculum that was modern ; the method advocated by the school 
was equally modern. Here objective and inductive work 
again found a home. This school was the first educational 
mile-stone since the Renaissance. The studies that it empha- 
sized came into the curriculum to stay. Within a hundred 
years (which is a short time educationally, at this point in the 
evolution of secondary schools), they were given a small place 
in strictly classical schools. Thus modern languages, history, 
geography, science, drawing, and, especially, mathematics, the 
third great " disciplinary " subject, secured a slender foothold 
in secondary education generally. 7 

Growth of the new school idea in different countries. — 
The influence of the movement is perhaps seen better in Ger- 
many than elsewhere. Educational plans took form there early 
and became more definitely organized there than elsewhere, as 
has already been indicated. But such influences are a part of 
world movements and suffer no limits. That the new ideas as 
to curriculum and method were felt in France is evident from 
what has already been said. An examination of the growing 
curricula of the Lycees shows that the new studies were making 
a place for themselves. Even in England eighteenth century 
schools (which are held up to ridicule otherwise), showed simi- 
lar changes. They might be aping popular policies elsewhere, 
but they at least indicated how generally the new education 
was attracting attention. Here is an interesting bit of adver- 
tising which will show more concretely how things were going 
in England : — 

7 There was still strong religious influence in the schools. De Mont- 
morency, 182-3. 



292 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

" At Knaton, near Thirsk in Yorkshire, by the Rev. Mr. Addison 
and proper assistants, young gentlemen are properly boarded, de- 
cently clothed, and regularly instructed in the English, Latin and 
Greek languages, writing in all hands, arithmetic and geometry 
with their uses in all kinds of measuring, trigonometry, plane 
and spherical, applied to navigation, astronomy, etc., algebra and 
book-keeping after the Italian method. They are furnished with 
books, paper and other necessaries at io£ per annum " (i.e., the 
total cost of board, instruction, etc., came to this amount, as in- 
dicated by various other advertisements). 8 

From a different source we get other interesting evidence of 
the change that had come over education, evidence that serves 
well here and will be useful a little further on: — "So few 
boys were then in my station," says Southey, looking back at 
his boyhood, " and indeed in the station of life just above mine, 
who received a classical education in those days (1750), com- 
pared with what is the case now" (1823). 9 In our own 
country the early academy programs show how the reforms 
were coming into education here. 

All of this evidence goes to show that the new forces were 
working thoroughly and that the resulting movement had char- 
acteristics of universality and permanence. 

8 Public Advertiser, 1755, quoted by Sydney in his England in the 
Eighteenth Century, II, 89. 
8 Quoted by De Montmorency. 



XIX 

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY — 
GENERAL HISTORY 

Delay for a second hundred years — A rival movement. — 

Considering the impetus the new ideas had received and the 
enthusiasm with which they were carried out, one is hardly 
prepared to find that they represented prophecies rather than 
any extended application at the time. The movement had 
small development for a second hundred years; the age pro- 
duced another movement that kept it in abeyance. This rival 
movement was at the bottom political, or rather social and 
political:. The period of conflict already mentioned, which 
exhausted men's resources and energy and reduced the 
"people" so much in numbers, was naturally followed by a 
period of absolutism, good for some purposes doubtless, but 
bad for general training in new ideas and enterprises. Then 
came just as natural a reaction, the rise of new democratic 
sentiments and the creation of new democratic forms, some- 
times by revolt and revolution, sometimes more peacefully. 
The individual again became dominant. A new inspiration 
roused the best in him and made him ambitious for the best. 
He had a natural right to the fullest and freest development 
attainable. The " perfection of the individual " became the 
ideal. Where should he find models for this development, 
models of the highest culture yet reached? Or better, how 
should he reach the best culture? He was helped toward an 
answer by another circumstance. A thrill of national senti- 
ment passed through Western Europe, particularly through 
Germany. This spirit of nationality directed and dictated 
national culture, which now became an intense object of 
thought. Where should models be found for this rising spirit 
to work upon and work through? How should culture be 
attained ? 

293 



294 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Different answers might have been given to these questions 
that the new sentiments were suggesting. The leaders took 
the most obvious one, the easiest one, the one nearest at hand. 
It was a natural answer. Perhaps it was the best one under 
the circumstances, though one is permitted to entertain grave 
doubts here. They said, in effect, the models of highest excel- 
lence are in the past. So far right and good. They said also 
that the surest way of reaching their end lay in the study of 
past civilization, in winning its culture, and, through its inspira- 
tion, making a culture of their own. So far also good. The 
doubt comes as to the way in which this was carried out and 
particularly as to the narrow way in which it was applied to 
the schools. 

Thus then the two impulses, individual and national, met in 
a new enthusiasm for classical study, and especially in the 
study of what they believed were the classics par excellence, 
the works of the Greeks. It was, however, Greek thinking 
and feeling that they wanted to master, not merely language 
and style, as in the case of Renaissance Latin. 

The New Humanism. — So has been explained the rise of 
the New Humanism, as the movement that we have been fol- 
lowing has been significantly named. Undoubtedly the influ- 
ences referred to played a part, perhaps a large part, in the 
phenomenon, but we must look further and deeper for other 
influences, if we are to have an adequate explanation. In fact, 
it is by no means certain that we have thus far found more 
than the secondary causes. To make the point clear, we must 
revert to the last period. The Renaissance brought Greek 
again into prominence. From its long occultation it naturally 
made headway slowly. It became a university interest only to 
a limited extent. It probably had a larger place in the second- 
ary school, but did not come within range of Latin. So small 
was its development, at the time, that we hardly name it in the 
typical curriculum handed on by the Renaissance. But decade 
by decade men learned more of Greek and went deeper into 
its meaning and spirit. Its constituency widened. Greek was 
in a very fair way to make itself a universal enthusiasm. 
Greek would surely have occupied a prominent place in the 
curriculum through this natural growth from the Renaissance 



NINETEENTH CENTURY 295 

alone. The double ideal of the New Humanism merely gave 
color and direction to the new study. 

Greek becomes a prominent study of the curriculum. — 
The Renaissance fixed Latin in the modern curriculum. Greek 
now became a fixture; it was the new and entrancing subject, 
in fact it was the study of the secondary school. This does 
not mean that more time was given to Greek than to Latin. 
Latin had monopolized so much attention in the Renaissance 
period and before that this would hardly be possible. When 
the new curriculum took on a settled form we find Greek 
prominent quantitatively, but not first. The Prussian cur- 
riculum of 1859, which may fairly represent the culmination, 
i. e., the real strength, of the movement, gives the ratio be- 
tween Greek and Latin as 1 '.2. 1 Latin was the substantial, 
practical, disciplinary subject. Soon after the enthusiasm for 
Greek began a movement was on foot to maintain the prestige 
of Latin. Greek brought in the ideal, the esthetic, and it 
was always treated more humanistically than Latin. Thus it 
brought some influences much needed in any national culture. 
Latin however had nearly 2,000 years the start of Greek in 
the direct secondary tradition. We shall see how this differ- 
ence and the qualitative differences between the two languages 
affected the curriculum in later years. The immediate effect of 
the classical revival is seen by such facts as have already been 
noted and particularly by the following points, readily gath- 
ered from a study of several curricula of the period: 

Illustrations of the dominant program of studies. — 1. In 
an 1816 curriculum in Germany the classics occupied more than 
half the time, Latin, Greek and mathematics %i of the time, 
while geography and history were given a beggarly y llf and 
science still less. 

2. In an 1830 school plan the classics occupied % of the 
time, and Latin, Greek and mathematics all of it in a way, as 
logic, philosophy, the vernacular, and history were taught inci- 
dentally in connection with other subjects. This was in South- 
ern Germany, where the classical influence was strongest. 

3. A North Germany 1837 curriculum gave more than half 

1 In 1816 one curriculum, however, gives the ratio as 7:8, which may 
be taken as the limit before things settled. 



296 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

the time to Latin and Greek, about f 7 to Latin, Greek and 
mathematics, % to German and French, Y 12 to history and 
geography, Y 17 to science, and % to drawing. 

4. An 1859 curriculum in Prussia gave % the time to Latin 
and Greek, about % to Latin, Greek and mathematics, about 
y 10 to history and geography, % to science, and % 4 to 
drawing. 

Germany, as elsewhere stated, is a good type-country for 
studying these modern movements in secondary education. 
Till the last decade or two she has been the object of much 
study and imitation in educational matters. The German idea, 
therefore, may perhaps be taken to express the general opinion 
as to the ideal of the period, that intense occupation with 
Greco-Roman literature and familiarity with the philosophy 
of classical antiquity gives the best general preparation for 
every higher profession. 

But the movement we are tracing appeared elsewhere. The 
return to old favorites in the curriculum, and their reinforce- 
ment by the addition of Greek, was not a narrow but a wide- 
spread policy. It was not a simple return, but a return with 
new feelings and ideas. In P'rance the effects are seen in 
the " arts course " of the latter part of the eighteenth century, 
which was saturated with classics and gave only perfunctory 
attention to other matters. It is seen also in the statute of 
1809 that restored the classics to their old position, making 
them the center of the curriculum, where the Revolution had 
established science. The curriculum of the Lyceum of a little 
later date also shows a preponderance of classics. Southey's 
statement 2 as to "the popularity of the classics in this period, 
compared with their position about 1750, is significant for 
England. Our early high school (barring the Boston English 
High School, which had a genuine classical school by its side), 
came into this classical inheritance. 

We surely find here a classical revival. The day of real 
subjects had not yet come. 

New demands for new studies — National ambitions and 
ideals. — But a new movement was already under way, or 
rather an old movement was taking on new life and making 

2 See page 292, Chapter XVIII. 



(NINETEENTH CENTURY 297 

itself felt in a new and stronger way, backed by stronger influ- 
ences and arguments. International competition was now 
becoming keen in a new way. Nations were eager for higher 
industrial development that commanded the resources of the 
world. The old idea of conquest, which utilized the best 
resources of the nation and gave an outlet for all surplus 
activity and more, had passed. The age of incursions and the 
unsettling of populations had also passed. The era of con- 
flicts, rising from international and religious jealousies or from 
factional spirit within the nation itself, was fast passing. The 
time had come for more intensive internal development. This 
now naturally occupied attention, and for three reasons: I. 
Activities must be utilized. As the demands of the old national 
occupations had decreased, new outlets for the released energy 
must be found. 2. The only sure means of progress was the 
development of native resources. 3. Times of peace acceler- 
ated the growth of population, and advancing ideals of life 
brought a greater number and greater complexity of needs that 
must be met. All this required industrial development of a 
higher sort at home. This was naturally supplemented by the 
idea of industrial development abroad in " spheres of influ- 
ence," protected by international agreement rather than arms. 
This would insure industrial outlets and facilitate trade. 
National progress and commercial progress were becoming 
identified. The schools then must provide new training calcu- 
lated to make graduates capable of understanding, utilizing, 
and increasing the resources of their country. National 
thought, urged by these considerations, but primarily and more 
deeply by larger feelings, growing consciously and uncon- 
sciously out of the philosophy of education, was throwing a 
new doubt over ancient school programs. Not only did mas- 
tery of environment seem more than ever to be the key to 
national development, but mastery of oneself, leading to a 
fuller development of power, seemed to be the key to educa- 
tional theory. 

After nursing at the breast of ancient culture for a long 
infancy, nations were thus becoming conscious of their per- 
sonality, and at first impulsive, and then more and more 
coordinated, movements were made to develop this personality 



298 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

in ways best suited to its rising needs. National aims and 
purposes were adding their weight to other influences that 
have been noted before. 

But particularly was the readjustment forced and guided by 
growth in industrial technique and industrial ideals and stand- 
ards. National aims turned in this direction. The older cen- 
turies had made as much as they could of industry with the 
simple industrial training of the times. But now investigation 
resulting in discoveries and inventions was opening up new 
industrial opportunities on every hand, and industrial processes 
were becoming more complex and technical. Industry was 
becoming scientific. It could not long thrive on empirical 
methods depending upon apprenticeship and some happy knack 
of doing things. It required scientific and technical education 
through various curricula adapted to different ends by which 
leaders might be developed and the rank and file of workers 
made efficient and effective followers and supporters. Thus it 
touched what is, after all, the real and final motive force, the 
individual. When a method, process, or movement appeals to 
individual power and initiative, it brings to the group, whether 
smaller or larger, — family, community, school, corporation, or 
state, — the surest means of progress. But to do this the indi- 
vidual must be socialized. This imposed a new duty of the 
new times and gave a weighty task to the school, which, under 
the pressure from other sources, it long left unaccomplished. 
That the new times made an intensive appeal to the individual 
is evident. They hardly left him an option. He must respond 
or fall out of the race. 

But the individual met the emergency; he did not have to 
be forced. Faith in the value and power of education grew. 
It showed wonderful vitality, especially in democratic coun- 
tries. More and more to the end of the nineteenth century, 
and particularly in the opening years of the twentieth century, 
the idea that every worthy occupation requires special educa- 
tion was growing, and the evolution of new forms of educa- 
tion superior to the old was making headway, till the new 
curricula took rank in disciplinary and culture value with the 
old. The old classical curriculum, instead of preempting the 
field of education, became one of many parallel curricula by 



NINETEENTH CENTURY 299 

which men were lifting themselves from mediocrity to 
superiority. 

But by this quick look ahead we have outrun the process 
and treated in a rather summary way the significant changes 
that were going on. In reality results came very slowly. The 
science of pedagogy, taking on new life from the new mental 
activity of the times and stimulated by the conditions that have 
been described, worked long at the enterprise. Pedagogy is 
really only an educational interpretation of the forces at work 
in a community. Its function is to study education in relation 
to the varied needs and interests of different social units, to 
formulate principles for guidance, and to suggest forms for the 
embodiment of principles. From the point of view then of 
this old-new science we are to follow a little more deliberately 
the changes that have been referred to. 

New spirit of pedagogy. — The new spirit of pedagogy stim- 
ulated men to a new study of old things and a study of new 
things, to the better application of old subjects for school pur- 
poses and community progress and to the formation and appli- 
cation of new studies. It must, to be logical, turn its attention 
to the examination of the various studies in their different 
relations and to a comparative estimate of their real substance 
and worth. In other words, pedagogy had to add to the study 
of " studies " as entities and practicalities, the study of them 
as embodiments of educational material related to educational 
ends. Subjects of the curriculum were thus subjected to a 
new appraisal, and a new system of values was worked out. 
Hence various emphases were brought to the front according 
to the points of view of students of educational problems. 
This served a double purpose. In the first place it led to prac- 
tical agreement as to the intrinsic value of new studies from 
more than one point of view. Difference of opinion related 
mainly to comparative estimates of different subjects and the 
direction in which they were supposed to affect pupils. In 
the second place, because equally strong arguments might be 
made for each view, agreements and differences alike suggested 
that each subject is the educational equivalent of every other. 
As a result the most substantial pedagogy of to-day, looking 
into each study with an honest purpose to see its merits, finds 



3 oo THE HIGH SCHOOL 

first that it is part of a unity, not a separate entity; second, 
that its value depends on the method of its application in the 
schoolroom. A true psychological method that brings out 
properly the correlations of subjects will make them all of 
equal value, — not of the same value, but of equal value. The 
vain wrangle over comparative merits should lose itself in a 
new rivalry in which each teacher will give an equal place of 
honor to all and at the same time strive to make the best of 
his own. 

A reconciliation of cultural and practical. — This new peda- 
gogy, partly caused, partly causing, has been revolutionizing 
ideas as to curriculum and method. Logically carried out it 
reconciles the cultural and practical, — shows how that is most 
truly practical which is most truly cultural, that the practical is 
cultural, if rightly treated in education, that real culture con- 
sists in so mastering the spirit and meaning of human interests 
and comprehending their relations that one can apply himself 
and them most efficiently in business, profession, or state. 
Culture does not lie in the object or study, but in the manner 
of dealing with it. The epoch we are considering began a 
movement for culturizing all studies and all professions, 3 even 
those that we have regarded as merely practical. In a way this 
sums up all movements. It is the result of reflection on edu- 
cation in a new way, the result of making a study of education 
itself. 

The growth of a new curriculum and of new educational 
apparatus. — This study made it evident that only a new or 
remodeled curriculum would satisfy all the demands, demands 
of theory and practice, of industry and science, of individual 
and nation, of mental needs and physical needs. Development 
of the curriculum must be in the direction of mastery of nature 
and mastery of self. The means for this development were 
forming in this period. They represented another force work- 
ing for the consummation of the new ideas, and itself the 
embodiment of these ideas. The process described in earlier 

3 At first a study or profession is crude, empirical, a bare aggregation 
of facts, half-facts, and assumptions. As it grows it gets more exact, 
becomes conscious of ties and relationships, develops the social spirit, 
attains a dignity that history gives, assumes a fineness of sentiment, — in 
a word becomes humanized and culturized. 



NINETEENTH CENTURY 301 

pages of the last chapter, — the modification of old studies and 
the development of new studies, — was advancing. The great 
subjects of science, mathematics, sociology, history, were 
growing. New facts in old and new subjects were accumulat- 
ing and becoming better and better organized and related. 
They were also becoming more finely adapted to educational 
ends, both for information and training. This was accom- 
plished through simplifications and grading, and especially 
through text-books that were intended to facilitate the appli- 
cation of this alluring body of science to students of different 
ages. Latin had long had its apparatus for applying itself to 
schools and this was growing better and better with each gen- 
eration. Other subjects, both science and art, history and 
mathematics, were discovering, inventing, and adapting 
apparatus calculated to make them better and more acceptable 
agents in school programs. 

The Newer Humanism. — A newer humanism thus came to 
view and brought with it new " humanities " in which the 
vernacular became the central force in the school, the great 
medium of culture and " discipline." With it went physical 
training, which became fundamental, history and geography, 
science and its applications, mathematics and their applica- 
tions, manual training in a broad sense, and foreign lan- 
guages, among which modern languages were growing and 
ancient languages declining. This represented the type cur- 
riculum, though it was not all actualized at the time in exact 
proportions, a result that has not yet been accomplished. 

Illustrations in various countries. — The movement was il- 
lustrated by the final establishment, systematization, and exten- 
sion of the real programs in Germany, which emphasized the 
new studies and made them the center of the curriculum; by 
the curricula of the old gymnasia (city schools), which showed 
the influence of the new ideas in classics reduced (and at the 
same time broadened and given a new purpose), and in science 
increased and accorded a definite place; by the wonderful 
changes that took place in old schools like St. Paul's, which 
made provision for several parallel curricula and devoted itself 
more especially to preparation for technical and commercial 
pursuits, while offering a typical classical curriculum to those 



3 02 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

who desired it ; 4 by the curricula of many other grammar 
schools, old and new, in England, as well as by the modern sec- 
ondary curricula that budded from the popular schools ; by the 
revision of the French Lycees that gave free play to modern 
studies and applied modern methods; by the substantial cur- 
ricula of the French higher primary schools also that supplied 
popular secondary instruction; again by Austrian secondary 
schools which took the lead in modernizing themselves ; and by 
provisions for various technical and special schools in the direc- 
tion of commerce and the arts, in all the countries named. 

The High School and its differentiations. — Finally the 
movement was illustrated, and more fully illustrated, by the 
inauguration and development of the most unique and prom- 
ising secondary school that had yet appeared, our own High 
School, that gave equal facilities for old and new and made 
possible many different curricula applicable to many condi- 
tions and ends. 5 More particularly was it illustrated by the 
growth of differentiated high schools brought into existence by 
the new influences in order to prepare the youth of the nation 
for the new industrial times, — the English high school, the 
commercial high school, the manual training high school, and 
finally the agricultural high school. 6 The demand for a 

4 Compare this with the simple and exclusive aim of its founder. 
See page 266. 

5 There are three things to be noted here in connection with our 
American high schools : — 1. The new studies are prominent ; 2, within 
the same school several curricula are offered ; 3, there are various types 
of secondary schools representing different central ideas and adapted 
to different circumstances and communities ; 4, cultural courses are 
fundamental in all the schools, which is only another way of saying 
that all professions and occupations are becoming culturized. The 
same points may be noted in other school systems, but for the most 
part on a smaller scale. With these changes the new studies have 
gained fairer conditions for development and application. There are 
thus differentiated curricula within the same high school and differen- 
tiated high schools. Both policies are now working in high school 
education. Another chapter will discuss the relative merits of the 
two. 

6 It would not be consistent with the general plan of this chapter to 
go more fully into the history of the high school. That is reserved 
for a succeeding chapter. The detailed development of secondary edu- 
cation in foreign countries must form the subject of a separate volume 
the purpose of which will be to trace the growth of secondary school 
systems in different countries and to show their present status. 



NINETEENTH CENTURY 303 

broader and more technical training for the more common 
vocations, in place of the empirical work that had prevailed, 
brought in also vocational studies of other types that pointed 
to other kinds of vocational schools. But this latter movement 
looked to the future and cannot be said to be characteristic of 
the period under consideration. 

Higher education to supplement secondary education. — 
These high schools were finishing schools on the one hand; 
on the other they were introductory to a more scientific study 
of the principles and technique of industrial and technical pur- 
suits, as well as to a fuller and more effective study of old 
objects of interest. For these differentiated high schools new 
forms of higher education arose to extend and supplement 
them, — the technical college and kindred higher schools. 
Business itself, and particularly the trades, were soon to organ- 
ize for cooperation with vocational education, and thus to serve 
as an industrial university. With a broadening of the second- 
ary school there thus came a broadening of the scope and a 
multiplying of the ministries of higher education. An age of 
great expansion in college training was at hand. The tendency 
to disparage such training as a preparation for business life 
was passing. 

New studies. — The studies that during the period styled 
the " Enlightenment " began to be distinct forces in the cur- 
riculum, as opposed to the mere attachments that the best 
mediaeval education had made them, now secured definite 
recognition and even assumed a predominant place in the cur- 
riculum. They so planted themselves in public thought and 
so justified themselves in pedagogical thought, that one can 
conceive of no change that would overwhelm them, as did the 
" New Humanism." And yet they are even now in a com- 
paratively crude state, both as to selection and organization of 
material adapted to secondary education, and, in a degree, as 
to method of teaching. 

Differentiation and special curricula. — Among the phases 
of growth that have just been referred to in relation to the 
adoption of new studies and new curricula none is more inter- 
esting than that which has to do with differentiation and spe- 
cialization in courses and curricula. It was due to two forces, 



304 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

first to the demand for special preparation for special lines of 
work, on the basis of a fundamental general culture common 
to all interests and necessary for the consummation of this 
special training; second, to the study of special psychology, — 
particularly the psychology of adolescence. Differentiation at 
a certain stage is essential, from a consideration of both inter- 
nal and external conditions of education, if the best is to be 
done for the human and material interests involved. 

Growth of educational terminology — Program of studies 
— Curriculum. — In this development in the secondary school 
old studies grew, some studies branched, some new studies 
joined the group. Altogether there was a wonderful develop- 
ment on the study side of the secondary school. One is im- 
pressed with the wealth of choice and opportunity. Teachers 
found it no easy task to pick a safe way. In the periods de- 
scribed in Chapters XII and XIII the program of studies 7 
was simple, clearly defined, fixed. Program and curriculum 

7 As we have reached a point where a differentiated terminology is 
necessary the following definitions of Dr. Johnston, of the University 
of Illinois, are significant. The terms referred to will be used in the 
following pages in substantial accord with these definitions. 

"High School Subject" denotes any distinguishable field of knowl- 
edge where subject-matter of instruction makes it practicable and de- 
sirable that one or more courses or half-courses in it be offered in the 
high school programme of studies. 

"Course of Study" means the quantity, kind, and organization of 
subject matter to be covered by a pupil in any high-school subject within 
a definite period of time and for which a credit unit or a fraction of 
a credit unit toward graduation is granted. "Second year Latin" is 
a "course of study." 

"Credit Unit" represents a year's study in any high-school subject 
constituting approximately a quarter of a full year's work of a high- 
school pupil. With any four-year high-school curriculum as a basis 
a school-year of from 36 to 40 weeks is assumed, and it is further as- 
sumed that a school-year's work in any subject will approximate 120 
sixty-minute periods, and that any course of study will be pursued for 
four or five periods per week. 

"Programme of Studies" refers to all the high-school subjects of- 
fered in a given school without reference to any principle of organiza- 
tion of these into curricula. 

" Curriculum " refers to any systematic and schematic arrangement 
of courses of study extending through a specified number of years 
and leading to a certificate or diploma that may be planned for any 
clearly differentiated group of high-school pupils. A four-year cur- 
riculum should represent not more than 16 (and not less than 15) 
units of work. 

"Schedule of Classes" is the daily and weekly tabular arrangement 



NINETEENTH CENTURY 305 

were identical. There was but one curriculum. In the follow- 
ing period study conditions were in general the same, though 
the program was growing, and richer and more stimulating 
material was offered. In the epoch now under discussion, 
however, the program became so large and complex that sev- 
eral curricula were evolved, now in the same school, now in 
separate schools. These curricula served as paths through the 
tangled growth of the program of studies. They were as yet 
imperfectly laid out. They sometimes formed a barrier rather 
than a help to choice, partly because studies were not well 
grouped, partly because curricula were isolated. There was 
thus an enticing opportunity to improve the organization of 
secondary studies, to unify divergent school interests, and to 
correlate the curricula that represented these interests. 

But there are two phases of secondary school life that have 
not yet been noticed. During the period they were growing 
equally with other phases. They are destined to become inti- 
mate parts of any curriculum and to require quite as much 
attention as parts that are more technically included in it. 

1. School social life. — Great freedom was allowed in school 
life, compared with the restriction and repression of other 
days. Coincidently there was a decline in home nurture. As 
a result the social side of school life had a marked develop- 
ment, particularly in this country. The high school pupil is 
preeminently a social being. A new growth of the social 
instinct, and a consequent growth of intimate group interests 
in great variety, now smaller as in chum life, now larger as in 
societies and clubs, are characteristic of adolescence. They 
have a perfectly natural development at the high school age, 
and are to be definitely provided for in the curriculum. Guid- 
ance and direction are urgently needed. To be really effective, 

of classes showing time and place of meeting and the instructor in 
charge of the course. 

"Department" in high-school work refers to that grouping of high 
school subjects which indicates the administrative policy in the assign- 
ment of subjects of instruction to teachers. It may be applied to any 
feasible administrative unit in the distribution of instructional work to 
teachers which is based on educational principles, the assumption being 
that there are very desirable possible groupings and very undesirable 
possible groupings; e.g., Department of Science, Department of Eng- 
lish, Department of Vocational Guidance, 



3 o6 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

however, they must be of the adolescent, not of the adult type, 
i. e., must be informed with sympathy with the adolescent. 
This type of guidance was not forthcoming in the period under 
consideration. Adolescent life was warped by the intrusion of 
certain artificialities, by school and parental indifference, and 
otherwise. 

Club life. — The club life of the adolescent gave more con- 
cern than some other forms of activity. It is important only 
because it is one of the modes in which the social instinct 
expresses itself. Association would be a better term to use, 
because it suggests a broader view of this side of the adolescent 
and a simpler and more natural solution of the related prob- 
lems. One form of club life was more conspicuous, though 
not more important, than others, and awakened more anxiety, 
chiefly because the whole matter was neglected. In their 
eagerness to meet the demands of the social nature high school 
pupils adopted the idea of the university fraternity. Un- 
ordered, unorganized, and, in general, unsupervised, the idea 
had a wild growth, till it was seen that untutored adolescents 
were becoming overmastered by an instrument that had proved 
not without danger for older students. It had been adopted, 
but not adapted. With an inherent carelessness and reluctance 
to analyze, the secondary school had borrowed instead of 
inventing something of its own, — a dangerous process. 
School authorities thus found a serious problem confronting 
them. It was met in different communities in different ways, 
now by supervision, now by repression. Neither way is final, 
the first because it does not yet fully attack the problem, which 
is one requiring a careful study of adolescent interests and 
adaptations to them in an educational spirit; the second, be- 
cause the adolescent is naturally gregarious and a lover of mys- 
tery. Repression that does not re-fill with something more 
adequate is incomplete, not to say vicious. A vacuum is 
abhorrent to human, as to physical, nature. The solving of the 
problem thus went to the twentieth century high school. 

2. Play. — During the last century it came to be recog- 
nized that play involves mental training, — that it performs an 
important part in promoting mental development and in pro- 
ducing mental alertness, that it may be as truly educative as 



NINETEENTH CENTURY 307 

any phase of school life. England was the great play country 
of Europe. She had long had her play organized and had 
given solicitous attention to its development as a part of her 
national educational creed. The English people alone of the 
great European nations did this. Other nations had, and 
still have, little inclination in this direction. We must thus 
look beyond Europe for the most marked development of play 
activities and play education in connection with the public 
schools. Here in the United States secondary education had 
the largest growth, during the period under review, and prac- 
tically became universal, — conditions precisely adapted to the 
free exercise of the play instinct. Play results however were 
as unorganized as in the case of social activities. There was 
much of the primitive in them. Virgin soil is always con- 
ducive to rank growth. Conditions were modified by certain 
reformations, discussions, regulations, and supervision. But 
there was comparatively little scientific study in the case; 
it was of an empirical sort. Still, more careful and more 
sympathetic attention was given to play than to the social side 
of school life, and more system was secured. Results were 
therefore more satisfactory. A real attempt was made to min- 
ister to adolescent needs. It should be said, however, that the 
social problem is more difficult and intricate and that it is 
harder to meet because of its secretiveness. As in the case of 
the social problem, a fuller solution of the play problem was 
left to the twentieth century. 

Secondary education for both sexes. — One further point 
should be noted in giving the general history of the period. 
With the popularizing of secondary education it was to be 
expected that secondary schools would eventually be open to 
both sexes. But, because of the momentum of long custom 
and a predisposition to be skeptical as to the education of 
women, the idea had to wait long for fulfilment. The nations 
of Europe granted the new privilege to woman slowly. Even 
to-day England provides little public secondary education for 
girls. 8 Our own country, almost from the beginning of public 

^England added some elements of secondary education, for boys and 
girls alike, in connection with the free popular schools. This addition 
was a budding of popular education, but it was repressed by the cold- 



3 o8 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

secondary education, opened its secondary schools to both 
sexes alike. 

But winning a privilege is often inconsiderate of meanings 
and relations. It is largely objective. New educational 
movements have their aftermath of problems. Only the prin- 
ciples that support the movements are stable. Educational 
machinery for applying the principles, like all machinery, needs 
adjustment and further invention to keep it equal to condi- 
tions. This movement for the higher education of girls was 
no exception to the rule. 

Some of the problems that secondary education for girls 
brought are general, some grow out of coeducational second- 
ary education, and are applicable particularly to the United 
States where this policy early established itself. The solution 
of these problems is not an academic matter, nor one of ex- 
ternal thinking. The question of the higher education of 
woman is at base psychologic and civic, — broadly sociological. 
It has been made economic and narrowly social. Its main 
proposition needs no further arguments, — it has become 
axiomatic. But the needed adjustments of the new policy 
require patient gathering of facts, a thorough study of the 
sexes, physiologically and psychologically, a re-studying of 
sociology, and, perhaps, a reorganization of home economics. 9 
The present century has the problem fairly before it. 

Present influence of the secondary school. — It is evident 
from what has been said that the secondary school in this 
epoch became a far larger factor in individual and national 
development than formerly. In standard it was equal to the 
old college and beyond it. In ministry it aimed at universality. 
This broadening of aims and spirit from within, in response 
to new conditions, was accompanied by a modification of influ- 
ences from without and a gradual change in the relations of 
secondary and higher education. 

Preceding chapters have shown in detail how the secondary 
school became bound to the university as its preparatory 

ness of a deep-seated prejudice against free secondary education for 
all the people. 

9 Some of the main points in the history of the movement for the 
higher education of woman, and brief reference to the problems en- 
tailed, will be found in the Appendix. 



NINETEENTH CENTURY 309 

school, subject to its direction. The establishment of prepara- 
tory departments in college and university was only a minor 
episode in this history. It was an emergency measure, and as 
such only temporary. 

Relations of secondary school and college modified. — 
Early in the nineteenth century the preparatory department was 
definitely excluded from the university. This meant for the 
university an advance in the " arts course," 10 so that it could 
be placed on a par with other " courses." 10 " It did not, how- 
ever, affect the fundamental relations of secondary school and 
university. It simply gave a partial opportunity for broaden- 
ing these relations. 

In the broadening process that went on in secondary and 
higher schools the narrow and formal requirements and rela- 
tions were modified by the reciprocal influence of the two, so 
that conditions for entering the university became broader and 
freer 11 than formerly and had more regard for the genius of 
the secondary school. This came about in the midst of much 
debate. Discussions and conferences, committee work and 
reports, agreements and concessions form one of the most 
interesting episodes in secondary school history. With all its 
interesting details it would furnish material for a volume. It 
should be said, however, that in these modifications the sec- 
ondary school had to take the initiative and, in a sense, force 
the issue, in order to adapt itself to the demands of its 
situation. 

City and state control. — From what has been said at dif- 
ferent points in this chapter it is evident that secondary edu- 
cation underwent other changes. Its external relations, aside 
from those that connected it with the university, had a very 

10 Here used in the old sense, as stereotyped expressions. 

11 Instead of the old specific requirements of subjects, and sec- 
tions and amounts of subjects, the college introduced the principle of 
credit-units, so that the requisite number of units might be secured by 
various combinations, giving considerable latitude in the choice of one's 
secondary school curriculum. A student graduated into college or into 
life because he had won so many units, not because he had covered so 
much ground or had " passed " so many studies. The plan was not a 
consistent and genuinely educational one, but it did give more lati- 
tude to the individual and more freedom to the school. It was a step 
toward the power test for advance in education. See XXIII, p. 413. 



3 io THE HIGH SCHOOL 

interesting development. From being merely individual, re- 
sponsible only to some local organization and to local preju- 
dice, secondary schools became a part of systems, city and 
state. They thus became fully secularized. We have already 
noticed the first step in this systematization (Chapter XIV). 
The schools enlarged their relations in the seventeenth century 
and became responsible to state systems. 12 But state systems 
in the fullest sense were the products of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. To take some of the typical states in Europe, Prussia, 
of course, occurs to one as the earliest and most conspicuous 
example of full articulation and systematization. France fol- 
lowed. England still delays. The English government long 
ago took an interest in education 13 and established a kind of 
" code " governing secondary school management, but even as 
yet there is nothing that can be called a system. System is 
hardly characteristic of England in any direction. Solidarity 
is attained in other ways. 

Our own States furnished the only example of free second- 
ary education of wide-spread application. They organized it 
on the basis of cooperation by state and local authorities. As 
a rule the establishment of secondary schools depended on local 
initiative, the state government establishing only general regu- 
lations and occasionally offering some financial assistance. 14 
But in some States, notably in Massachusetts, provision for sec- 
ondary instruction for all children was made compulsory. 

12 Saxony and Wurttemberg were probably the first to really enter the 
field of state systems. Previous attempts at state control need hardly 
be considered here, so far as permanent results are concerned. 

13 De Montmorency has told the story in one of the most interesting 
of pedagogical books, " State Intervention in Eng. Education." 

14 In the United States secondary education is a regular part of 
state systems in the various states. It is permanently secured by state 
regulation, and is so distributed as to be made accessible practically to 
the whole school population in most localities. Local initiative at first 
was the only source of free secondary education. It is still given free 
play, so far as consistent with general state requirements for providing 
secondary schools. The finances are a part of the local budget, but 
in certain cases state funds are also appropriated to aid and encourage 
the growth of these schools, known universally as High Schools, and 
to ensure certain courses of study. While private secondary schools, 
known by various names, abound in all parts of the country, the High 
School is the typical secondary school agency in all the states and is 
amply provided for by local, state, and national sentiment and re- 
sources. 



NINETEENTH CENTURY 311 

Even here, however, system did not reach the stage exemplified 
in Prussia. Individual initiative, spontaneous development, 
and adaptation to local needs still had place and assured a fresh 
and vigorous growth. Beyond the special points just referred 
to the natural ambitions of men in a free country pushed the 
establishment of high schools about as far as a central author- 
ity could go. Our high schools were a spontaneous outgrowth 
of public sentiment, — the natural budding of our elementary 
schools. 

Summary. — This spontaneous growth of secondary educa- 
tion and its instinctive reactions to the social and industrial 
conditions of the times, culminating in the differentiation of 
curricula and schools, gave the secondary school new life and 
freedom. It was a maturing of secondary school instincts 
and ambitions. Through it all the school was gradually assum- 
ing the counterpart of the position that it held at the time of 
the old tribal secondary school, 15 when it was the only school 
known. In this position it was eventually to be as fully respon- 
sive to modern, as it was before to primitive conditions. Edu- 
cators were coming to see that the high school is not a sub- 
ordinate, but a cooperative and coordinate agency in determin- 
ing and fulfilling educational policy, and as such sure to have 
a wonderful future. It had not yet accomplished this position, 
for there was much that was indefinite and indecisive and un- 
corrected in its action. It was not yet fully conscious of its 
real mission, not yet settled in its real ends and aims, but it 
was making headway. 

APPENDIX 

Brief resume of the growth of secondary education for girls.— 

The subject of the higher education of woman is sufficient for a book. 
Brief reference to some of the main points in its history is all that 
will be in place here. 

We found in studying Roman education that woman had notable 
influence there and was accorded unusual privileges in secondary 
education that advanced her immeasurably beyond the position of the 
Greek matron. After Rome she lost this commanding position in 
education and dropped into an obscure place from which she has only 
recently rescued herself. In the Middle Ages and later she shared the 

* 5 See Chapters I and II. 



312 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

cloister education, it is true, but it is doubtful whether it could be 
called in any degree secondary, as in the case of that prescribed for 
boys, except that it was the education provided for adolescent girls. 
Great educators pressed the thought on the educational world, but it 
was not till the latter half of the nineteenth century that conditions 
were essentially changed. Eighteen centuries of educational history 
since the beginning of the Christian era were practically a blank in 
the matter of secondary education for girls. 

The great nations of Europe hesitatingly accorded the new right 
to woman. Till recently it was left largely to private initiative. But 
the policy made sufficient headway, even in the most conservative coun- 
tries, to give the principle some standing and force. France was 
more spontaneous in the matter than other foreign countries, and 
freely lent state influence to the movement. The United States 
accorded the new secondary school privileges unreservedly, and did 
it early. The academy movement, in the early part of the period we 
are reviewing, gave almost the first substantial secondary school privi- 
leges to girls. Sometimes academies were intended simply for advanced 
education ; sometimes they were expressly planned for training teachers, 
and thus served as the first normal schools. The special agitation for 
a free girls' high school, following the establishment of the English 
High School for boys in Boston, in 1821, was the next notable step. 
Finally the wonderful development of high schools in the latter half 
of the nineteenth century assured free secondary education for all 
the people. 

The non-sexing of secondary schools is one of the most interesting 
phenomena in educational history. A perfectly natural phase of this 
non-sexing, especially in America, is co-education, and a striking result 
of this latter policy, due partly to pedagogical and administrative mis- 
takes, is that girls outstripped boys in our high schools, both in num- 
bers and scholarship. 

Problems involved. — Since the achievement of free public secon- 
dary education for girls through our high schools several problems 
have shown themselves. One problem is a social one, the discussion 
of which has thus far been so meager that the problem itself has hardly 
taken final form, though it is evident that there is something that de- 
mands careful thought. Another problem has to do with the question of 
curriculum, — whether the same studies are adapted to the two sexes. 
It is plain that psychical differences correlate with physiological dif- 
ferences, and that differences in vocation and in social functions should 
affect the curriculum, but it has not yet been satisfactorily settled 
that differentiation is necessary in the secondary school. 

There is however another and more definite problem based on a 
difference in physiology and psychology between the sexes. In the 
early high school course the girl is found to be two years in advance 
of the boy in physical and mental development. Hence the boy is 
impressed with the spectacle of seemingly falling behind in the race, 



NINETEENTH CENTURY 313 

and teachers are goaded by the disparity into unsympathetic attitudes 
toward the delinquents. This divergence in growth would seem to 
suggest some separation of the sexes, in some subjects at least, during a 
part of the high school course. If we follow what seem to be the 
soundest principles of election, we get some help, it is true, but the 
problem still persists. Even if election could go further, the two sexes 
would tend to group themselves about their individual curricula through 
feelings stimulated by temporary, rather than permanent, conditions, as 
will be seen from what has just been said. 16 The problem must be 
met by a better understanding of adolescence on the part of teachers, 
which will come through better professional training; this will bring 
better appreciation and sympathy and hence wiser dealing with groups 
and individuals. 17 

A fourth problem has to do with physical development. The ques- 
tion has been raised whether, in the close association of the sexes in 
large numbers, under loose supervision and without adequate physical 
direction and training, the development of sex qualities is not unduly 
and unhealthfully stimulated. It is an undeveloped problem at present 
and goes to the twentieth century with some incisiveness. 

16 This is shown by the course of events in colleges, where such 
artificial groups are forming, narrowing the curriculum of both sexes. 
Certain courses come to be known as girls' courses, certain others as 
boys' courses. Hence a new kind of caste arises. 

17 See Note 7, page 420. 



XX 

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY — 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE 

Contributions of the period to the "new pedagogy." — 

In following the external history of the period it has been evi- 
dent that the secondary school made rapid progress peda- 
gogically. In fact the most significant progress was made in 
this direction. If we are to understand the new epoch in sec- 
ondary education, we must consider this side of its history. 
We shall take up here, however, only a brief survey of this 
inner history of the 19th century, noting the most conspicuous 
contributions to the principles and practice of education. 1 

I. A new psychology. — First then we should notice that, 
as a foundation for the new growth of pedagogy, the nine- 
teenth century developed a new psychology. This psychology, 
in the first place, emphasized the unity of mind in place of the 
old disintegration represented by the older " faculty psy- 
chology"; in the second place, it gave a more concrete and 
physiological aspect to the science, instead of the former 
abstractions, thus awakening a new interest in mental hygiene ; 
in the third place, it gave a specialized psychology, — the psy- 
chology of childhood, the psychology of adolescence, and 
pathological psychology, with the psychological clinic. Of the 
special psychologies child-study developed from fragmentary 
and often ill-advised work into a science, useful and used in 
every elementary school-room that pretended to be modern; 
the psychology of adolescence, more important for our pur- 
pose, also attained the dignity of a science, but had less effect 
on the secondary school than the first on the elementary school. 
Its fuller adaptation and application to the problems of second- 

1 Most of the gains here noted belong to the last half of the nine- 
teenth century particularly, and so represent the culmination of develop- 
ment, rather than the general practice of the whole period. 

314 



NINETEENTH CENTURY 315 

ary education is the work of a new century and offers an inspir- 
ing opportunity. The third, pathological psychology, was of 
service to the exceptional child and to the community, often 
saving the child to himself and to society, and making him a 
positive instead of a negative factor. 

2. A new philosophy of education. — A new philosophy 
of education came to view. Every teacher who is more than 
a mechanic studies relations and meanings, and unifies educa- 
tional facts by reference to some central idea that gives them 
consistency and significance. This is his philosophy of educa- 
tion. So the educational world as a whole, through some able 
exponent, makes a philosophy of education. Sometimes this 
philosophy is no more than an interpretation of the history of 
civilization from the point of view of education. Sometimes 
it is an attempt to give a new and more helpful direction and 
radiation to educational thought and practice, and a more 
helpful insight into educational processes and organization. 
The basis is sometimes biology, sometimes sociology or psy- 
chology. In all cases it represents an effort to unify and 
correlate, and hence to focus attention on fundamental 
ideas. The secondary school shared in the inspiration of such 
philosophy, though perhaps less productively than other 
schools. 

3. A change in the direction or point of view of educa- 
tion.— As a consequence of the new psychology the direction 
of education, or the point of view of education, was changing, 
at least in the minds of the most thoughtful educators. For- 
merly school training was an external matter brought to bear 
on the pupil and working its way into the inner forces ; a 
systematic course of study disciplining the powers was the 
central idea. The more fruitful idea of the period under dis- 
cussion was that the direction is from within outward, that 
education is the development of power under wise and sympa- 
thetic guidance, a natural growth based on the laws of general 
physical and intellectual evolution. This point of view is 
genetic and sociological, and it has peculiar significance in the 
adolescent period. 

4. An enlargement of aim. — The aim of education there- 
fore changed. Instead of the somewhat hazy idea of disci- 



3 i6 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

pline, and the more definite and absorbing idea of the develop- 
ment of a study-subject, came that of the development of 
character, and training for community life, to be considered 
in its highest significance. The idea of character itself grew 
immensely. The broadest definition of education made it a 
process which gives, I, mastery of environment, developing all 
one's powers to their fullest possibilities, by using and direct- 
ing self-activity in productive exercise in this environment; 
2, power to apply and create. 

Secondary education therefore, in its larger significance, 
now proposed to give the student power not merely to compre- 
hend, but to use his inheritances and his relations in science, 
literature, art, religion, and civic and industrial functions. 

5. Growth of Method. — Method had a striking develop- 
ment. I. Its psychological basis changed. In the direction of 
general method, a progressive development of all kinds of 
power, whether mental or physical, took the place of the older 
idea of developing separate faculties at special periods. Each 
phase of mental or physical life has its appropriate develop- 
ment at each period, and requires as much care in each period 
as it does in the period when it predominates and gives tone 
to life. What was to the older psychology a separate faculty 
was now found to be only one phase of a unified mental life ; 
through it the whole mind, better the whole man (since phys- 
ical and mental are closely correlated), was conceived as work- 
ing, each part of the whole making its own special contribution 
to the special phase in question. As to order and organization, 
method became more developmental. An educational process 
that takes, as its foundation, interest in the concrete and 
real contact with things, and with fine sympathy stimulates 
a natural growth from this basis to wider and wider generaliza- 
tions suited to, and hence appreciated by, the growing adoles- 
cent at different times, and thence to abstract thought, like- 
wise by gradation, lays the surest foundation for intelligent 
citizenship and productive service. Such a process uses nat- 
ural interests and builds acquired interests wisely and broadly, 
so that the latter readily reach out to all grades of intellectual 
and physical work. Such a method and the user of it infuse 
the educational process with an inspiration that appeals pecul- 



NINETEENTH CENTURY 317 

iarly to the secondary school pupil and wakens enthusiasm 
through which he expresses himself. In this process educa- 
tors were not bringing elementary school methods into second- 
ary schools, as might seem to be the case from emphasis on 
objective work. Both schools represent a cycle of method- 
elements beginning with the concrete and leading up to the 
general. Interest of the secondary pupil in objective work is 
a very different thing from that of the elementary pupil, — 
broader, richer, more suggestive, and involving more points 
of view. Similarly the abstract in the elementary school is 
very different from the abstract in the secondary school and 
has a different function. Failure to recognize this difference 
has relegated concrete and objective work chiefly to the ele- 
mentary school, whereas its most promising field is in the sec- 
ondary school. 

2. The form of method changed. From being predomi- 
nantly deductive and didactic, at its best it became inductive 
in all directions. This was seen in the various forms of 
inductive work in science ; but it was seen as well in the posi- 
tion of the rule in arithmetic, which now stood after the con- 
crete illustrations ; in the laboratory method and original propo- 
sition in geometry; in the source method, of different forms, 
in history; in the development of grammar through, and in 
connection with, language, making grammar in fact a derived 
and advanced subject, rather than a fundamental one; and in 
the correlation of rhetoric and literature. The new methods 
were not yet universal; most of them could hardly be said to 
hold a conspicuous place in the economy of the secondary 
school. But they had a striking effect on procedure. The 
laboratory method in science was the most firmly fixed of all, 
though not yet perfected. The laboratory method in geometry 
was found in the schools only occasionally, but the old abstract 
method was modified by the laboratory idea. Similarly the 
source method in history was seldom found in its type form, 
but the old rote methods gave place to more educational ones 
that adopted something of the source idea, in the direction of 
investigation and discussion. The formal classical method in 
foreign languages generally yielded to the idea of the direct 
method enough to relieve it of what was most hampering. 



3 i8 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Tims, while much of the old order and its abstract procedure 
was still found in the schools, formal methods gave way to a 
certain extent to developmental ones, and were, sparingly and 
reluctantly, but surely, supplemented by objective work and the 
spirit of individual thought, observation, and experiment. 
Much therefore was done to give a clearer and more vital 
contact with educational material and forces. The new be- 
came prominent enough to characterize the epoch, though need- 
ing to be worked out far more scientifically and with far more 
appreciation of its true meaning. 

6. The elective principle. — The principle of election came 
into the economy of the secondary school. It came because 
the number of departments of knowledge worthy of study by 
secondary pupils increased to such an extent that no one could 
even touch them all, to say nothing of real initiation into them, 
which is the secondary pupil's natural heritage. It came also 
because it had become necessary to adjust school programs to 
individual needs and to special ends. 2 In carrying out the 
principle there was an attempt to find, among the subjects of 
the secondary school program, a " core of constants," to which 
different more or less consistent groups of studies might be 
added to suit individuals and to prepare for special occupa- 
tions and professions, as well as for advanced courses of study. 3 

7. Discovery of secondary school principles for a sec- 
ondary school philosophy. — The discontinuance of prepara- 

2 Of course such a principle would receive at first incomplete and 
even crude application and would be subject to mistakes, even serious 
mistakes, in applying. It has not even yet fully found and occupied its 
place. The principle is good and meets a very definite need. With 
wise adjustment it will fulfil effectively its legitimate functions. This, 
however, is not the place to argue its merits or defects, but to record 
its adoption into our system of education and its limited adaptation to 
secondary education. It was generally applied to curricula rather than 
to individual studies, but the latter application was not wholly excluded. 
Naturally, with this departure from the fixed curriculum idea, qualifi- 
cations for promotion and graduation were based on units of work 
done, rather than upon the completion of specified studies. This point, 
however, will be taken up more specifically in a later chapter. 

3 It was as a consequence of this broadening and adapting of the 
secondary curriculum, giving greater play to individual initiative, that 
the colleges revised and liberalized their relations to the secondary 
school by making their admission requirements depend in part on units 
of work, instead of wholly on prescribed studies. 



NINETEENTH CENTURY 319 

tory schools by the universities and the broader and more elastic 
admission requirements, taken in connection with the great 
increase in variety of secondary education coming through 
differentiation in secondary schools, make it evident that there 
was a change in the spirit of secondary education. The sec- 
ondary school came to appreciate, in a degree, its own signifi- 
cance and power. It therefore discovered sound principles 
for developing in itself school feeling, thought, and judgment. 
It became a thinker, no longer dependent for policy upon the 
thought of other schools that did not have its point of view 
and upon doctrinaire schemes; it had attained its majority. 
To have discovered real secondary school principles for judg- 
ing of ends and means and for interpreting general educa- 
tional policy was one of the most important achievements of 
the time. A real secondary school philosophy was at hand. 
It remained to incorporate the principles thoroughly in the 
working programs of the school and to work out the 
philosophy. 

A new school agency — A training school for teachers. — 
But the times demanded a new and more effective instrument 
for utilizing all the gains of the age. What should it be ? The 
old formal curriculum, together with the simple method, in- 
herited from the later Renaissance period, that required of 
teachers only scholarship and power to grasp traditional forms, 
had passed away. Broader and more intricate schemes of sec- 
ondary education were developing to meet individual needs and 
to give pupils preliminary initiation into a more and more com- 
plicated and exacting business and professional world. These 
were awakening genuine interests and enthusiasms that would 
lead pupils finally into the technique of the particular form of 
life suited to them. The idea of special training for one's 
work had become prominent and impressive. Why should not 
teaching share in this idea? Particularly the new science of 
education which combined the psychology of education, the 
philosophy of education, and educational sociology, as well 
as methodology, was pressing its claims. It was supplying mo- 
tives, principles, and practices calculated to lead to a surer 
fulfilment of secondary school ends, especially its new ends. 
All this was felt, if not expressly acknowledged. Altogether 



320 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



teaching was forced to regard itself as a profession for which 
special training must be provided. There was thus needed a 
new institution that would focus the new principles and ideals 
and train workers and leaders in a new education. Thus came 
schemes for the professional training of teachers, and the nor- 
mal school, — model school or school of norms, — for adminis- 
tering those schemes. 

The normal school. — The new school began in this country 
at the end of the third decade of the nineteenth century. It 
began much earlier in Europe. In fact an occasional normal 
school was found in the Renaissance period, when the normal 
school idea had its inception. It had a wonderful effect on the 
elementary schools, making them far outstrip higher education 
in efficiency. 

Training for secondary teachers. — The spirit of profes- 
sional training reached the secondary school partly through the 
influence of the normal school, partly through an indigenous 
influence in the secondary field itself. Training for secondary 
teachers began in Europe in the eighteenth century and grew 
with varying results. In this country the normal schools at 
one time offered training for both elementary and secondary 
teachers, and, as a matter of fact, sent many graduates into 
the secondary schools. But, being organized particularly for 
training elementary teachers,, they were inadequate for prepar- 
ing teachers for the new secondary education. They failed to 
attract students who were scholastically equipped by college 
and university training for secondary teaching. There must 
therefore be some special agency to supply professional train- 
ing for these students, if they were to come up to the new 
ideals. Scholarship alone could not fit them to cope with the 
teaching conditions that confronted them, though there was a 
prevailing college notion that this was enough. Secondary 
school teaching required first of all a study of the secondary 
school pupil, who is radically different from the elementary 
school pupil psychologically and pedagogically. It required 
also a careful study of the subject matter of curricula with 
special reference to secondary school needs. To focus and 
apply all this in teaching it was necessary to develop a method 
adapted to adolescence. The problem of secondary education 



NINETEENTH CENTURY 321 

had become so large and complex and ideas of teaching had 
advanced so far that there was a demand for a product differ- 
ent from that which college or university could supply by their 
typical courses. Hence the rise of a new training school. It 
was supplied in higher schools of learning by different plans 
and was called by different names, now department of educa- 
tion, now school of education, and sometimes college of 
education. 4 

In this country small beginnings of this new school appeared 
toward the end of the last century. It was slow in coming and 
slow in growing, probably because of the stubborn academic 
feeling that the college as then constituted gave training enough, 
and because of a prevailing college tendency to disparage nor- 
mal school standards and normal school work, with which the 
new training plans were rather loosely associated. Before the 
century closed, however, there was conspicuous activity and 
development in the direction of special college training for sec- 
ondary school teachers. Means were crude and inadequate, 
and there was little progress beyond a very general training, 
except in one or two conspicuous schools. Professional train- 
ing for secondary school teachers must be broadened and deep- 
ened and more thoroughly organized. Particularly must it 
provide larger opportunities for specialized training for teach- 
ing secondary school subjects and for understanding secondary 
school administration. For this purpose it must supply larger 
facilities for practical work. 

General characterization of the period. — As the secondary 
school became a subject of study on the outside and inside, in 
its relations to curriculum and method, teachers and pupils, 
town and state, and as this study took practical effect in better 
provisions for secondary education in all its phases, there were 
better conditions for the working of the law of natural selec- 
tion, in relation to both teachers and pupils, and surer ground 

4 For the best complete and detailed account of the rise and develop- 
ment of professional training for secondary school teachers in this 
country see Professor G. W. A. Luckey's book on this subject. Other 
matter on the topic will be found in the history of certain academies, 
which were of much service in training teachers at a critical period in 
our educational history. The academy was sometimes merely a semi- 
nary for teachers. 



322 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

for sound development in all directions. The secondary school 
was coming to serve community interests more effectively. 
There was, however, need of further organization to bring 
fragments together, to establish just relationships, to secure 
and give meaning and steadiness to elements now drifting 
rather aimlessly, to orientate parts by connecting them with the 
secondary movement as a whole and with society as a whole. 
This must be accomplished in the new century. 

Needs. — Secondary education had an exuberant growth 
during the last century. Its most striking general character- 
istics at its end were, on the one hand, its breadth and variety, 
and, on the other, its lack of unity and settled aims. Its course 
of development and the results cannot be better illustrated than 
by the history of our High School, which will form a fitting 
close for this story of the growth of secondary education. 



XXI 

THE HIGH SCHOOL — DEVELOPMENT OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 
IN THE UNITED STATES 

Beginnings o£ our educational policy. — Our English and 
Dutch ancestors settled the educational policy of our country. 
They brought in educational traditions, forms, principles, and 
habits that are felt to-day. Their policy has grown with the 
country and has received infiltrations from other sources that 
have accelerated, or retarded, and otherwise modified, its 
growth. The more important of these infiltrations, however, 
have come from sources that had the same general ideas of edu- 
cation that prevailed in the home countries of both peoples. 

Nature of early schools.—- When our English fathers came, 
they were familiar with the " grammar " school system that 
furnished in England more wide-spread opportunities for edu- 
cation than existed at the beginning of the nineteenth century. 1 
The Hollanders, too, were accustomed to an enterprising sys- 
tem, rather better, if anything, than the one in England. The 
educational habits of our early fathers worked themselves out 
in schools immediately after their coming, — schools that were 
copies of the ones they knew and attended in the home coun- 
tries. Doubtless standards became somewhat diluted here be- 
cause of pioneer life and because the most famous school- 
masters remained at home. At the same time the freshness 
and vigor of the new life gave opportunity to break from tradi- 
tion, and to substitute for slow, conservative development a 
quicker and more spontaneous growth. This made itself felt 
later. 

First secondary school — The "Grammar School." — 
Whatever may be said as to elementary education, there can be 
no question that the secondary school started in New England. 
It has spread thence over the country, modifying itself to suit 

1 See Chapter XVII, p. 279. 

323 



3 2 4 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

time and circumstance. Schools sprang tip spontaneously in 
the first years of settlement, the Boston Latin Grammar School 
being the pioneer. But the famous rescript of the General 
Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony put the matter on a 
legal basis a few years later (1647), an d every community of 
100 families must thereafter maintain a grammar school or 
suffer the penalty of the law. Thus began the first secondary 
schools in America, the grammar schools. They were out- 
spoken preparatory schools for Harvard College, which was 
only a little more advanced grammar school. 

The curriculum. — Curriculum and method were copied 
from the home grammar schools. In fact, we must think of 
an average Renaissance school in England. The early cur- 
riculum of St. Paul's school, which was established about this 
time and attracted wide attention from its enterprising spirit, 
was religious instruction, Latin, and Greek. The colonial 
grammar schools had a similar curriculum, with the emphasis 
on Latin ; but arithmetic was added in some cases, and, owing 
to the exigencies of the times when primary instruction was 
precarious, reading and writing had to be taught to give the 
necessary preparation for undertaking secondary studies. 
Requirements for admission to Harvard, which were a kind of 
gauge of grammar school accomplishment, were ability to read 
any classical author into English readily, make and speak true 
Latin, prose and verse, and perfectly decline paradigms of 
nouns and verbs in Greek. 

The method. — The method was the typical grammar method, 
which, it will be remembered, had been relieved by the new 
Renaissance text-books. One of the famous beginner's books 
of the time was produced in the colonies by Ezekiel Cheever. 
It was similar in type to the books described in the appendix to 
Chapter XVI. The method in general was probably neither 
better nor worse than that which prevailed in the Old World. 
It was improving, but was still hampered by the fetters that 
Sturm and, before him, medievalism, had forged. 

These grammar schools represented the earliest efforts for 
secondary education. The New England colony was noted for 
its enterprise in education and sent its enterprise westward 
when the time came to send colonists there. New York and 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 325 

New Jersey in lesser degree took up secondary education and 
added the weight of their influence in establishing a double 
standard of instruction. 2 

Decline of the grammar school idea. — But on the whole 
the grammar schools did not prosper, so far as increase in 
numbers was concerned. The early settlers' minds were 
divided and distracted by wars and rumors of wars ; for the 
rest, men were busy with making their way in a new country. 
As the Revolution drew on these conditions were intensified. 
In addition to this, the resources of the colonies were drained, 
so that financial difficulties hindered the spread of grammar 
schools; at any rate they furnished convenient excuses for 
escaping the law. Outside of these circumstances, there were 
others of a social or religious nature that prevented the enthusi- 
astic application of the grammar school idea. The spectacle 
of men winning their way and attaining great influence without 
higher education was not without effect. 3 

But we may suspect that the main reason for the halting of 
the grammar school lay deeper, in the character of the schools 
themselves. There was a deep-seated indifference to them 
that would have prevented an easy acceptance, even if other 
conditions had favored. The colonists from their very situa- 
tion were forced to be " practical " men. They could hardly 
see how Latin, especially the Latin of the grammar school, 
could help them in " winning the wilderness." The average 
boy needed it not. The few who were to enter the professions 
must of course take the time honored preparation that was 

2 Besides this secondary education supplied by the grammar schools, 
some secondary instruction was also possible in connection with the 
common schools provided by the same act of 1647, and by the earlier 
act of 1642. These schools were manned by college men who, for finan- 
cial reasons, combined study and teaching and offered " extra " op- 
portunities to individuals to take up some secondary studies. Many 
a boy was helped toward college in this way. This was a later develop- 
ment of secondary instruction, but still it came early and existed side 
by side with grammar schools. It should perhaps be more property 
considered a little further on. (See page 327.) These two agencies 
long supplied secondary education for the colonists, and it was of no 
mean sort, as education of the time went. 

3 Martin in his Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School System 
has in a very interesting way followed the history of these grammar 
schools, and has gone into the matter more fully than is called for in 
a chapter of this character. 



326 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

supposed to be the key to higher education and training. " But 
why," the pioneer might ask, " should my son, who is to be an 
industrial worker or leader, require this by-gone curriculum ? " 
Such feelings, even though unexpressed, quite possibly worked 
against the grammar schools. How else shall we fully explain 
the quiet opposition of the people, and the reluctance of the 
sheriffs in serving writs, when the law enjoining the establish- 
ment of such schools was violated? Such an attitude could 
not have existed if the service of these schools had been 
regarded as vital. This feeling would have all the more force 
because such practical ideas as have been noted in Chapter XIV 
and elsewhere had come into education and were bearing fruit. 
Industrial and trade interests had already made their contribu- 
tions to certain schools in the form of new studies that were 
proving their worth, before colonists put foot in the new 
country. 

What has been said would hold good with grammar schools 
at their best. It has to do with numbers only. But the schools 
probably declined in quality also. The curriculum, from its 
very nature, had in it the seeds of formalism and decay. With 
so little applicable to practical life and capable of adaptation to 
changing conditions the school must in time lose life and 
enthusiasm. 

Need of a more adaptable school. — From all the circum- 
stances in the case it was finally evident that the grammar 
schools were entirely inadequate to the demands of the time. 
Some other school agency or agencies must be forthcoming to 
meet the current needs. 4 The old demand for secondary edu- 
cation remained. Better conditions and the improving circum- 
stances of many individuals brought a call for higher degrees 
of education. Culture ideas were growing; the country was 
smoothing its homely but attractive and honorable roughness. 
It was, however, a new culture idea, not the old, or at least it 
was the old with important additions, that was needed. 

4 Yet grammar schools continued to be established. As late as 1759 
a legacy of £388 was given the town of Lincoln, Mass., to support a 
grammar school forever. For 60 years the income was paid only to 
such teachers as could teach Latin and Greek. This led to the more 
general employment of college graduates and undergraduates and 
tended to give a more substantial character to the school. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 327 

The " popular " secondary school. — The need was met by- 
two schools, only one of which has been noticed, or at any rate 
adequately noticed, in histories of education. The first was the 
" district school " that grew most naturally out of the life of 
the people. The grammar school was an imitation; it came 
from without. The district school came from within. It grew 
up, as the practical " common " or " elementary " school, to 
suit the needs of neighborhoods. Some means of education 
had to be devised wherever groups of people were found, or 
wherever a central school could accommodate scattered families 
within a convenient radius (and often an inconvenient one). 
Here the elements of a common school education were found. 
The school was ungraded. It took all who could come and 
gave each his quota in an adaptable program, from the A, B, C's 
up. The scholars were grouped according to advancement, and 
so might form one group for one study, and another for a sec- 
ond study. System was not yet. In this school the extent of 
the program, or rather the character of the program, depended 
on the teacher who could be procured and upon the needs of 
individuals. There was no regular curriculum. Hence these 
schools offered secondary opportunities as well as those of a 
more modest nature. For a part of the year they were regu- 
larly supplied with college men as teachers, who, in school or 
out, offered to ambitious pupils Latin, Greek, and the more 
advanced mathematics. This provided an elastic plan that in 
a way supplied secondary education in many communities. 
This was natural secondary education. It grew out of, or was 
attached to, the popular schools. 5 It was a great educational 
force in the community, possessed great vitality, and won 
peculiar affection. Its effects must not be underestimated. 6 
They sank deep into the life of the people and live with peculiar 
force in secondary education to-day. They tided the country 

5 Other secondary schools were, so to speak, autochthonic. They did 
not represent a growth from below. They began in the early history 
of civilization as schools for adolescents, before primary schools ex- 
isted. After schools came to be graded, they were naturally classed as 
secondary schools. See early chapters for a fuller discussion of this 
feature. 

6 E.g., the author's native town, a very small country place, some 
twelve miles from Cambridge, has practically never been without its 
representatives in Harvard, a commentary on its educational spirit fos- 



328 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

over to more systematic secondary instruction, better adapted 
to the needs of a growing people. 

The academy. — But there was needed something more 
than this, after all, rather indefinite means of secondary edu- 
cation. There was a call for something more specialized and 
extended, capable of supplying a larger degree of culture, — in 
the main a finishing school, in the best sense, for those whose 
means and ambitions combined to lead them beyond the district 
school. It came, an attractive and notable secondary school, 
establishing itself irregularly as endowments and opportunities 
offered in various sections. It drew pupils from the school 
locality and also from remote places, so that it had to become 
a home as well as a school. Its tributary territory was wide 
or narrow according to its reputation, which rose and fell 
according to the ability of its masters. Some of our most 
noted teachers made their reputations there. It began about 
the middle of the eighteenth century and naturally was influ- 
enced by the new movements in education that have been traced 
in Chapter XVIII. This school was the Academy. It multi- 
plied rapidly under the encouragement of the state, which gave 
it a legal status and aided it with endowments of land and 
money. By 1850 there were some 6,000 academies scattered 
through the different states. Their fortunes and their age 
limits naturally varied. Their lives were sometimes short. 
They declined rapidly in number after the middle of the 
century. 

Origin of the academy. — The academy was a natural 
product of the country. It is true that the name and form 
came originally from abroad. As it grew however and adapted 
itself to the lives of the people it was thoroughly American. 
More than this, the pressing influences that have been noted 
were calculated to issue in some such form as this without any 
importation. The imitation would seem therefore to be merely 
external. The personality of the people so changed the institu- 
tion that it was practically an indigenous school. It served a 

tered, if not developed, by the conditions described, though in this case 
the grammar school legacy mentioned above was a factor in the result. 
Similar results, at least notable ones, were found elsewhere, — rather 
generally, it is to be assumed. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 329 

great purpose and gave training and inspiration to the leaders 
of those days. 

Curriculum. — The typical curriculum is illustrated by 
that offered by the trustees of Phillips Andover Academy, one 
of the most famous schools that resulted from the academy 
movement, and one of the very few that have persisted to this 
day. In 1778 the purpose was stated in this way: 

" To be a public free school or academy for the purpose of in- 
structing youth not only in the English and Latin grammar, writ- 
ing, arithmetic, and those sciences which are commonly taught, 
but more especially to learn them the great and real business of 
living. There may also be added music, art of speaking, practical 
geometry, logic, history, and such other liberal arts and sciences 
or languages as opportunity or ability may hereafter admit and 
as trustees may direct." 7 

An interesting example. — The establishment of an acad- 
emy in the author's native town, a New England village of 
a thousand inhabitants or less at the time, furnishes some 
interesting points as to the development of the academy idea, 
and at the same time gives some hints as to organization and 
method at that time. 8 In 1792, through the work of an asso- 
ciation called the " Proprietors of the Liberal School of 
Lincoln," an academy was decided upon. Within a year a 
building was provided and the academy began its work, offer- 
ing as its curriculum astronomy, higher mathematics, rhetoric, 
Latin, Greek, and principles of religion and morality. Teachers 
prepared the text-books and they were transcribed by pupils. 
Here Samuel Hoar, Professor John Farrar, and the Rev. 
Cyrus Pierce, the first principal of the first normal school 
in the United States, were prepared for admission to Harvard. 
The school continued for about fifteen years. The building 
was then sold to the town and used for a district school till 
1872, when it was relegated to humbler uses. 

From Chancellor Brown's book, The Making of our Middle 
Schools, we may judge that the following list of secondary 
studies represented the limits of curricula, the different schools 
drawing from it as suited their purpose and the conditions of 

7 From Brown's Making of our Middle Schools. 

8 See History of Middlesex Co., Mass. 



330 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

their work : — religious instruction, Latin and Greek, English, 
mathematics (on which strong emphasis was laid), surveying, 
navigation, natural philosophy (chiefly astronomy), geography, 
history, rhetoric, logic, moral philosophy. 

Method. — As these academies showed the influence of the 
world-movement in curriculum, 9 so they probably did in 
method. Evidently more of the concrete and objective and ex- 
perimental was found there. As they were coming nearer to 
life, so they were coming, in their modes, nearer to the proc- 
esses of life. ia 

We must not, however, suppose that the policy and aims of 
the academy were uniform. Their early purpose has been 
given with sufficient definiteness. Their later purpose was not 
so simple. 

Change in relations of the academy. — The old grammar 
school, as we have seen, was peculiarly related to the college ; 
it was the college's preparatory and feeding school. As the 
academy came in and the grammar school sank from notice, or, 
in large areas, became extinct, the academy naturally came into 
close relations with the college and became a feeder. Finally it 
became primarily a fitting school, and its place as a general 
school for the people was taken by another institution. 

The academy differentiated its work in obedience to the gen- 
eral movements of the century, now being genuinely classical, 
now classical-scientific, but never becoming so narrowly 
classical as some of the older schools. Its history forbade 
that. As preparation for higher schools besides the typical 
college became necessary through the growth and culturizing 
of new interests, it carried differentiation still further. To- 
day in its best state it is merely a private high school, 11 having 

9 See Chapter XVIII. ' _ 

10 One touch of method is given in the illustration above. 

11 Both of the forms of secondary education that have been discussed, 
the District School and the Academy, owed allegiance to, and were in- 
fluenced and promoted by, both the state and private individuals. The 
academy often owed allegiance also to the church. The district school 
had often had a minister as a leading, or even the leading, spirit on 
its committee of supervision. Each was, in one degree or another, a 
part of a public school system. They took the place of the old gram- 
mar school, though the church influence was smaller in them than in 
the older institution. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 331 

a broad program of studies out of which have crystallized vari- 
ous curricula. 

A new school, — an indigenous school. — The latest addition 
to our secondary school agencies has marks of greater per- 
manence than any of its predecessors enjoyed, for its roots 
are in the soil. Whatever may be said of the academy, the 
new school has grown out of the life of the people, and that 
too since they have become acclimated and have developed a 
national tone. It has, therefore, come nearer the heart of the 
people than any organized educational agency except the 
primary school. There was needed a school that should repre- 
sent the genius of the people, embody their ideals, and be so 
responsive to their needs, even their moods, that it would never 
become fossilized in matter or method, nor so conservative and 
slow-moving that it would not keep pace, within reasonable 
limits, with progress in educational ideas and in intellectual 
and industrial life. 

The High School — General characteristics. — The High 
School met these conditions. It began in 1821, in Boston. 
The manner of its coming was in itself significant. In the 
first place, it was an extension upward from the elementary 
education of the period. It was thus an outgrowth of the 
popular education that was so auspiciously started by the laws 
of 1642 and 1647. In the second place, it was a local school 
confined to narrow limits of territory.' In the third place it 
was introduced to meet special needs. The secondary schools 
in the vicinity of the first high school, the former Latin gram- 
mar schools, were evidently not giving adequate preparation 
for the new professions and occupations that were rising. 
The aims of the High School, as formulated by its promoters, 
show this. It was established to " qualify by mental discipline 
to fill usefully and respectably public and private stations for 
which the facilities at hand do not qualify." In the fourth 
place its initial curriculum marked it as a school meeting new 
conditions and responding to the influences of the times. It 
offered a three-year curriculum at first, with the following 
studies: — English, history (ancient, modern, American), 
geography, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, plane trigonometry 
and applications (navigation, surveying, etc.), natural, moral, 



332 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

and political philosophy, and astronomy. In the fifth place, 
it was a public school, a product of the idea that the state is 
responsible for popular education, because it must, in obedience 
to the laws of self preservation and advancement, see to it that 
its life and ideals are perpetuated. The trend in this direction 
had long been seen and felt. We can trace it back to the six- 
teenth century, as already shown, but this applied to elementary 
education. For the state to undertake popular secondary edu- 
cation and make it free to all was a thought of slower growth. 
This was the beginning of a movement that has had a much 
more extended development here than abroad. 12 

This first high school was called the English Classical 
School, but almost immediately it came to be known as the 
English High School, and has kept the name. 

Growth of the high school idea. — The high school idea 
worked slowly. Communities had to persuade themselves that 
the idea was a wise one, and had to accustom themselves to it. 
A quarter of a century elapsed before many schools were estab- 
lished. But the thought of public control was deepening and 
had immense vitality. The Dartmouth College case showed 
conclusively how much voice the public had in endowed institu- 
tions that hitherto had supplied secondary education. From 
1850 on high schools multiplied rapidly and gave very definite 
promise of making secondary education universal. 13 

Relations to the college. — Other secondary schools had 
been so closely connected with the college that it was quite 
natural that the new school also should take on college rela- 
tions, and that the academies, the mainstay and feeders of 
higher education, should decline. 14 Early high schools there- 
fore became preparatory schools, and, in consonance with the 
classical revival of the New Humanism, which was a world 
force, they made the classics the central feature of their cur- 
ricula. 

12 It is, of course, true that other nations have gone to great lengths 
in establishing and promoting secondary education, but it is given to 
the people conditionally. It carries with it tuition fees, and so limits 
its application. 

13 Some states were especially forward and enterprising in this move- 
ment. Some were as notably backward. 

14 Due in part to the rise of the new school. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 333 

Broadening of the curriculum. — But the real idea and kin- 
dred ideas were rousing for a final effort to establish them- 
selves firmly and influentially in the schools. In the second 
half of the century, when free secondary education was spread- 
ing at a more rapid pace, they completely changed the character 
of the high school curriculum. This change was seen in pro- 
grams of the sixties, 15 though of course not in its full force. 
It was necessary to soften and overcome the prejudice of 
classical circles against the new, in order to give these studies 
due importance in the program. It was necessary also to 
train teachers and to develop the machinery and method for 
making the studies duly effective. It took some time, there- 
fore, to establish the new subjects as essentials for every edu- 
cated person both from the point of view of information and 
from that of training and culture. 15 To a hasty observer re- 
sults might easily have appeared superficial, in the early days. 
For instance, it was the era of the 14-weeks text-book in sci- 
ence. But in reality there was deep significance in it all. 
Eventually the new made its place secure and took precedence 
over the old, as will be seen by comparing present-day pro- 
grams with older ones. 16 

Differentiation in the high school. — In the last decades of 
the century a process of differentiation began in our high 
schools in two different directions. First, life had become 
more specialized and new professions and industries had 

15 The New Haven High School in 1867 offered a 3-year curriculum 
in which were taught English, Latin, Greek, French, German, arithmetic, 
algebra, geometry, trigonometry, book-keeping, physical geography, 
physiology (lectures), natural philosophy, astronomy, natural history, 
household science, rhetoric, history (ancient, modern, American), 
geography, civics. 

The Cincinnati high school in a 4-year curriculum offered English, 
German, French, Latin, Greek, elementary and advanced algebra, geom- 
etry, plane trigonometry, surveying, history (outlines), anatomy and 
physiology, natural philosophy and astronomy, chemistry, botany, ge- 
ology, mental and moral science, civics, drawing, pedagogics. The latter 
subject indicates a new office for the high school, that of training 
teachers. The idea has had some currency. As trained teachers were 
too few to supply all schools and many high school graduates entered 
immediately upon the work of teaching, a real service was rendered 
through this plan, where the high school normal work was anything 
more than perfunctory. 

16 See appendix of Chapter XXIII for recent programs. 



334 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



sprung up. Wider preparation was therefore required for 
more lines of work than formerly, — for commerce, for tech- 
nical pursuits, for industrial life, for education. A new 
preparation was essential for older professions and occupations. 
More attention had to be given to individual needs and prefer- 
ences. From all these circumstances the high schools were 
obliged to offer, in place of a single uniform curriculum, sev- 
eral parallel curricula suited to meet the entrance requirements 
of professional schools, or adapted to more immediate ends. 
The larger schools by allowing the elective principle to enter in 
one degree or another were able to meet group needs and in- 
dividual needs in still greater detail. 17 

Second, differentiation came not merely in studies and cur- 
ricula, but in schools, in response to modifications in educa- 
tional ideals and changes in conditions of life, — the former 
dependent on the latter. 

Manual training departments. — This differentiation had to 
do, first, with altered circumstances as to manual work and 
with the transformation of ideas and ideals here, seen in the 
introduction of manual training into the curriculum. The 
causes and conditions that led to the change are well known. 
This is not the place to follow in detail the evolution of special 
subjects like this. A volume could easily be given to it. The 
change from a general and inclusive type of life to one that is 
specialized and exclusive, and the growth of city populations, 
were primarily responsible for the new thought as to manual 
work, so far as the introduction of manual training into schools 
was concerned. The training once supplied naturally by the 
multum-in-parvo country or village life must now be supplied 
artificially. As natural and spontaneous education declines, 
artificial education advances ; otherwise efficiency must be low- 
ered. The compensation in this case is not voluntary, but 
forced. Again, the development of technical pursuits and 

17 In fact graduation from a high school generally came to be based 
on completing so many units of work, though under certain limitations 
of choice that practically gave a uniform core of subjects as a basis.. 
By general opinion this core consisted of quotas of language and litera- 
ture, science, history, and mathematics, in addition to music, drawing,, 
and physical training. The prescription therefore was not specific but 
general, allowing considerable opportunity for choice. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 335 

professions, due to conditions described in previous chapters, 
emphasized the need of skilled manual work, and this also fos- 
tered the idea of manual training. The first emphasis, how- 
ever, was on manual. Then, out of the heat of discussion and 
the conflict attending so striking a movement to modernize the 
curriculum, 18 came the thought of an educational purpose. 
The study of physiological psychology showed the relation of 
manual training to brain culture, — that such work brings into 
function brain tracts otherwise neglected. 19 Associational psy- 
chology suggested and enforced the idea that, by correlating 
manual training with other subjects, knowledge is related and 
clarified, thus giving added interest in, and insight into, the 
other branches of the curriculum. The incidence of thought 
was now on training; this idea took precedence over the first. 
Finally came the culture idea. Manual training thus came to 
concern itself with form as well as matter, with meaning as 
well as substance. The subject embraces all work of hand and 
eye combined, bringing into action, and thus contributing to 
the development of, all mental powers, in one degree or 
another. It involves, in its widest application, the work of 
several schools, — the trade school, the school of mechanic 
arts, and the school of fine arts, — as well as the varied 'manual 
work that has come into the common school curriculum. An 
art student, whether concerned with fine arts or mechanic 
arts, becomes a stronger and finer student and a finer work- 
man, if he knows the history of his art and the correlations 
of his art, literary, esthetic, and scientific, i. e., knows more 
than the bare technique of his calling. A manual training cur- 
riculum might therefore easily be broadened and become a cul- 
ture curriculum of the highest type. 

Grading of manual training. — Now as history or science or 
geography may be and must be graded to suit all ages and thus 
fulfil their place and relations in schools of all grades, so 
manual training has an elementary school side and a secondary 
school side, and it follows the student yet beyond. Particu- 

18 The feelings of would-be educators in this instance are compar- 
able with those which came on the invasion of the fifteenth century 
curriculum by new subjects. See Chapter XIV. 

19 Just as physical culture has been enhanced by the same study. 



336 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

larly does manual training have great possibilities in the sec- 
ondary school, if the conditions which have been mentioned 
are to be fulfilled there. It appeals to adolescents, for they 
love art and history and great ideas; they are full of activity 
and like constructive work, whether intellectual or physical. 

A Manual Training High School. — A belief that such sub- 
jects keep up interest in school work and tempt pupils to pro- 
long their education, added to a confidence in the training- 
value and practical value of the new subject, led to the found- 
ing not of a new school, but a new type of the new school we 
are considering, the manual training high school, which has 
had a striking growth in some of our large cities. The idea 
was too large to be worked out adequately as an attachment of 
existing high schools. It required a separate school to give 
a typical development. Manual training could, of course, be 
made a branch of the regular high school work, and this was 
frequently done with beneficial results. In fact, if the subject 
is of any value, it has a necessary relation to all schools, to 
give a proper outlook on life and a kind of practical training 
that is much needed. In addition it enhances the value of 
other studies. But, with all this, the separate school had a 
place, to show the full meaning and value of the subject and 
to give a training needed by certain classes in our highly dif- 
ferentiated communities. In effect it brought into school life a 
new culture curriculum, of great possibilities or very narrow 
possibilities, according to the spirit in which it was carried out. 
It was a peculiarly fitting curriculum for a high school, which 
is a finishing school for so many. There was needed an oppor- 
tunity for those who chose mechanical pursuits to equip them- 
selves for their work, not by learning their trades or profes- 
sions in the sense of becoming technically proficient in them, 
for that must come elsewhere, but by cultivating them. This 
cultivating was to come not through a narrow curriculum, but 
by one broad enough to give a larger culture that would lead 
men to work more intelligently, more appreciatively, more 
interestedly, and more accurately, and give larger play to their 
minds in many directions. 20 A curriculum or two will give 

20 It is unfortunate that culture has in the minds of many come to 
signify something that is the antithesis of the practical. Culture in 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 337 

some idea of what was accomplished in the new directions, how 
far the manual training high school ran parallel with the older 
types of high school, and what remained to be done to give it 
more purpose and solidarity. 21 

High School of Commerce — Its philosophy. — Like the 
arts commercial pursuits also came to demand specialized train- 
ing. In early days commerce was simple, unorganized, empiric 
cal, personal; ideals were narrow, crude, individual; competi- 
tion was general, long-ranged, inarticulate, shrewd. Any man 
with ordinary gifts and good management could succeed. But 
now business began to be organized, scientific, impersonal; 
ideals were becoming broader, though still narrow and one- 
sided, polished, though not refined, corporate ; competition was 
developing into something minutely particular, close-ranged, ar- 
ticulate, keen, cruel, predatory. Commerce therefore demanded 
more than a general training. It demanded also more than a 
technical business curriculum, which deals with little more than 
the forms and mechanics of business. 

Value of technical training for business ideals. — But there 
was something more important than all this. Trade had be- 
come an institution. To serve it successfully, to turn it from 
doubtful and unworthy tendencies that were coming in, and 
toward a realization of its best, one must know its character- 
istics, its departments, its laws and codes, its principles and 
practice. No one could know it all in detail, but he must, in 
addition to a general knowledge, familiarize himself minutely 
with his department. He must know sources and resources, 
routes hither and yon, formulae of production, economies of 
handling, possibilities of by-products, means of improvement, 
laws of growth, possibilities of invention, — not that one could 
know it all intimately, but he must know it all in the large and 
be able to command it all, and see that it was forthcoming. 
Success might depend on any one of these things. A mill saved 
by some economy might turn the tide ; a route better by a few 

the true sense gives power to see, comprehend, and appreciate relations, 
and this is the essence of practicality. Culture is in no way synonymous 
with knowledge. 

21 See Appendix to Chapter XXIII. 

Here again we must note the rise of vocational studies and the pros- 
pect of more specialized vocational high schools. See also Chapter XIX. 



33 S THE HIGH SCHOOL 

miles, or quicker by a few hours, might be a pivotal matter. A 
scientific study of economics might obviate an advance in 
freight rates. All this meant that commerce demanded experts 
who knew not mere forms, but meanings and relations, the 
inner springs and principles of motion. A broad culture cur- 
riculum in commercial science, — commercial chemistry, 
physics, history, geography, psychology, law, — was necessary 
to 'train the man of business. There was thus room for both 
a secondary and a tertiary curriculum. So came high schools 
of commerce to join the specialized schools. They had small 
development, as yet, but found a place in the largest centers. 22 

Social reasons for commercial education. — There are, how- 
ever, other reasons why commerce should demand a broad cul- 
ture as a preparation for serving it. If trade or commerce is 
an institution, as it ought to be, it must develop the character- 
istics of an institution, the chief of which is service. Service 
is fundamental in all institutions and other characteristics grow 
out of it. For that they are born ; by that they grow. Com- 
merce has primarily no rights, — at any rate no monopolistic 
right with natural resources ; no institution or individual has ; 
it has a steward-right or rent-right only. Its typical function 
is as an intermediary between sources and public, and it has a 
right to legitimate compensation and rewards for that service, 
commensurate with its ability and efforts, but correlative with 
the compensation and rewards accorded other institutions, no 
more. Contrary ideas are based on feudal civilization. 

Now it is this side of commercial life that a specialized study 
of business is calculated to develop. There is scope here for 
adolescent inspiration. There is room for broad secondary 
courses and curricula and for broader and more detailed uni- 
versity courses. 

Rise of the Agricultural High School. — One more line of 
specialization calls for notice. It has to do with the funda- 
mental profession of all, — agriculture. In the early stages of 
development in our country crude methods and a natural 
science of agriculture brought sufficient returns and equalized 
opportunities and fortunes in a democracy of agriculturists. 

22 See Appendix of Chapter XXIII for the curriculum of a typical 
commercial high school. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 339 

Land was abundant and stretched limitlessly beyond current 
needs. Overflow was provided for without intensifying culti- 
vation. But conditions changed. Population pressed upon 
natural agricultural resources, though not so seriously as to 
rule out entirely the old state of agriculture. Finally com- 
pensation in the net returns for expenditure of capital and 
effort in agriculture was not sufficient, when compared with 
inducements in other directions, to insure an adequate develop- 
ment of natural agricultural resources. It was not sufficient to 
" keep up the stock," to say nothing of advance. It was thus 
necessary that agricultural life should hold out larger induce- 
ments, larger commercial opportunities. With it all, there 
was an urgent call for surplus products to supply other popu- 
lations that pressed too closely on their own sources of sup- 
ply. These were technical reasons for giving more attention to 
agricultural interests. Interwoven with them were reasons 
suggested by the palpable decline in the quality of country life 
that had its ground in the same general conditions that have 
been described. Agriculture had fallen from its once com- 
manding position and had come to be looked upon as one of 
the lower and more uncultured vocations. Education and 
talent had sought other fields, and agriculture had come to be 
regarded as the haven of the common people, who were thus 
in a way isolated by certain very artificial distinctions. A kind 
of caste had grown up. 

A change in the status of agriculture. — This was not only 
wrong, but dangerous for the future of agriculture. A change 
was needed. The lack of motif must be remedied. The status 
and personnel of country life must be improved. The profes- 
sion of agriculture must again reach its commanding position 
as the leading vocation, attractive and stimulating to the high- 
est talent, fostered by a very definite and insistent education 
and training, and distinguished for culture. The change began, 
partly through the influences mentioned above. Agriculture 
was coming into its own. 

A science of agriculture. — Every human interest, of itself, 
inevitably becomes an object of exploration and study, first 
by the few, then by the many. It accumulates a body of 
experience which must be handed on, As it makes itself a 



34 o THE HIGH SCHOOL 

matter of serious study, it discloses its laws and becomes organ- 
ized. It then becomes scientific and so more than ever an 
object of devotion for students. All this and something more 
awakened a new attitude toward agriculture. Both justice and 
sentiment on the part of thoughtful observers and students of 
national opportunities led to the adoption of means for encour- 
aging and promoting such a wide-spread and important inter- 
est. What means surer than education? Out of such condi- 
tions naturally came a science of agriculture with its incentives 
to study. Courses in agriculture were established. They 
grew ; they made more courses necessary ; they claimed a place 
in the common schools ; they made a new high school with a 
new curriculum. 

Earliest form of agricultural schools. — The earliest form 
of agricultural education under public control was the state 
agricultural college, which from more than one point of view 
might be rated as a secondary school. It began about i860 
and was materially aided by the general government through 
the " Morrill Act" of 1862. It was still further advanced by 
appropriations provided by the " Hatch Act/' of 1887, which 
encouraged experiments and set free inventive genius of a new 
kind. As a rule, preparation for these schools was left to the 
regular high and elementary schools. 23 The high schools, with 
their new studies were able to respond in a measure to the 
demands. But agricultural studies must be graded if they are 
to have a sound development. An agricultural secondary 
school was the natural concomitant of the agricultural college. 
Here was the vantage ground for the initiation of the work, 
for reasons stated before and needing no rehearsal here. In 
reality, the secondary school did come first, for the college, as 
just indicated, was probably to be classed with secondary edu- 
cation. As the college grew its secondary functions naturally 
fell to another school. But the agricultural high school was 
more especially needed to give a culture course to the majority 
of intending agriculturists who go no further in school life. 
It began its mission in the West near the end of the century. 

23 It need not be surprising that elementary schools are mentioned 
here, for in some instances admission requirements had to be low to 
meet the new conditons, 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 341 

It has the same claim for recognition as the manual training 
high school or the commercial high school, and it is as logical 
a development as they. 

Country life winning. — Inventions that have improved 
means of communication and given better opportunities for cul- 
ture are fast doing away with country isolation, — bringing city 
and country together. Country life is winning back its old 
charm. Scientific agriculture, with its opportunities for inven- 
tion and for creating and propagating new species, and with 
its incitement to new records, gives still further attractiveness 
to that life and makes it a worthier object of high talent. This 
is a result in part of the movement that has given the agricul- 
tural high school. May it not be in part a cause of that 
school ? 24 

Method. — In these various forms of the High School, 
method in general followed the trend of the period described 
in'the last chapter. Method determines the value of the cur- 
riculum. It is the inner spirit of the educational process. The 
High School, being a new institution and hence less hampered 
by tradition than older secondary schools, had a fairer oppor- 
tunity than the latter for initiative in method. That it did not 
seem to respond to the opportunity is perhaps a sign of its 
newness. It was so occupied with getting its new forms started 
that for a time at least it gave less thought to method and dis- 
played less care in the preparation of teachers than older sec- 
ondary schools, especially the secondary schools on the Con- 
tinent of Europe. But beneath all this was the fundamental 
conservatism of secondary education that is apparent from the 
facts embodied in the last chapters. During the last years of 
the period, however, method began to attract more earnest care 
and thought and promised a genuine renaissance. 

Summar}/-. — The evolution of secondary education in the 
United States was a rapid and striking one. As we follow its 
course we find five stages: — 1. The Grammar School period. 

2. The District School with its secondary school attachments. 

3. The Academy period. 4. The High School period. 5. The 

24 A typical curriculum of this school is furnished by an agricultural 
high school in a typical agricultural state. See Appendix to Chapter 
XXIII, 



342 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

period of differentiated high schools and high school curricula. 
The spontaneity and unconventionality of its growth, the free- 
dom with which it adapted itself to different needs and condi- 
tions, its purpose to serve the public, and its apparent lack of 
system and internal organization are perhaps the most con- 
spicuous characteristics of the American secondary school up 
to the end of the nineteenth century. 



XXII 

A REVIEW OF THE EVOLUTION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION FROM 
DIFFERENT VIEW-POINTS 

It will be of interest here to sum up and classify some of the 
main facts as to secondary education that we have discovered 
as we have followed its development through various epochs, 
and to make some generalizations that will form a perspective 
and be of value in a discussion of secondary school interests. 

Grading of education. — First then, education, through the 
influences which have been described in the different chapters, 
has become significantly differentiated into I, primary educa- 
tion; 2, secondary education; 3, higher education, which have 
met us everywhere since the Greek people developed a graded 
education. 

Aims, with examples. — Again, the aims of education have 
been rather clearly differentiated and embodied in several school 
types: — I. The cultural, as seen in the later Greek schools 
and their Roman counterparts, in a few great schools of the 
early Christian centuries, in the universities, and their feeders 
inside and outside, the typical classical schools of the Renais- 
sance and later times, and finally in the modern Gymnasium of 
Germany, the Lycee of France, the Great Public School of 
Great Britain, and the classical High School of America. 
2. The practical, vocational, or industrial, represented by the 
more characteristic sophist schools, by a certain type of the 
Roman rhetorical school, by the parish schools in which the 
early Church taught its followers the rudiments of agriculture 
with other rudiments, in a somewhat different way and on a 
different plane by the arithmetic schools of the guilds and the 
modernized English schools of the fifteenth century 1 that were 
forerunners of the modern commercial school, and, in the last 

1 It will be remembered that these schools introduced commercial 
subjects that scandalized the Latinists. 

343 



344 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



decades, by industrial and trade secondary schools in different 
countries. 3. The technical, illustrated by the various technical 
schools of Europe and America. 4. The professional, best 
exemplified by the grammar and rhetorical schools of old 
Greece and Rome that trained the orator, by the early uni- 
versity faculties of law and theology that trained members of 
the clerical profession for their broad and commanding places 
in society, by the same and additional faculties of the modern 
university, and by specialized professional schools of to-day. 

The cultural type most prominent. — Till the eighteenth 
century the industrial type was not largely represented in the 
schools. Industrial life was as yet simple and unorganized, and 
rarely felt the need of specific preparation through organized 
education. But, as we have just seen, both primary and sec- 
ondary education, secondary more than primary, had entered 
the field of vocational education with considerable effect. 2 
On the other hand, schools of the cultural type were promi- 
nent and were highly organized and very effective. 

The real movement. — From the eighteenth century on the 
secondary school very logically, but very gradually, devel- 
oped forms and programs that had been objects of less con- 
cern before. In the struggle for a greater freedom the first 
notable epoch is that which culminated in the real-schule move- 
ment of the early eighteenth century, which quickly fell away 
before a revived cultural movement represented by the New 
Humanism, less formal than the old humanism, but scarcely 
less abstract. The new movement, however, was not dead. It 
reappeared in stronger form and under more favorable circum- 
stances in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Then the 
line of cleavage became definite and decisive. The two ideas, 
the cultural and practical, were embodied in two distinct series 
of schools, or in separate departments in the same school. 

Cleavage between classical and scientific aims. — But the 
one, the practical, always tended toward the cultural, for all 
studies eventually become culturized, if they are true to their 
own implications; the other, the cultural, pari passu, was as 
constantly forcing itself, or being forced, to become more con- 

2 It may be questioned whether, for the times, as much attention was 
not given to vocational training as at present. 



A REVIEW AND A FORECAST 345 

crete and practical. During the last fifty years the process has 
been greatly accelerated and differentiation into several prac- 
tical-cultural types has been pronounced. Another and higher 
humanism has appeared. 

Ideals. — During the period under review the secondary 
school has had a wonderful history. From epoch to epoch we 
have noted new ideas, methods, means and ends, but the school 
has never lost its identity. Plans and ideals, however, have 
changed through natural growth and have been modified by 
artificial pressure. Ideals are fundamental. Plans are sub- 
servient to them. Ideals are especially interesting when viewed 
in historical succession. The next step, therefore, will be to 
show this succession by arranging the ideals in a series with 
brief comments as to their significance. We have then : 

1. The tribal ideal, under which the tribe (or later, when 
the larger political unit was developed, the state), was every- 
thing and the individual nothing. Progress depended upon the 
will of the whole body. There was no individual initiative, no 
opportunity for individuals to shoot ahead by the inspiration of 
genius and lead the way. The chances for advance were there- 
fore as one to a thousand. It was a static ideal. Here rote- 
learning had its birth. 

2. The civic ideal, under which the state regulated educa- 
tion for its own well-being, but gave the individual large scope. 

3. The individual ideal that made individual development 
the central motive, thus creating a dynamic state of society. 
In its extreme form it made the individual everything and the 
state nothing. Hence the state fell. 

The last two ideals were conspicuous in the history of both 
the Greek and the Roman state. 

4. The institutional ideal, in which an institution was 
substituted for state influence. In general it was the counter- 
part of 1 ; in a special and very limited application it was the 
counterpart of 2. 

5. A psychologic ideal, under which men devoted them- 
selves most intensively to the development of mental acumen by 
a single subject. It served as a transition from 4 to 6. 

6. The humanistic ideal, which began in the Renaissance 
period, but flourished more typically in the new humanistic 



346 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

period that followed. It involved strict training in the ele- 
ments of great subjects that represented the essence of past 
culture and art ; it was calculated to set the spirit free for the 
enjoyment of the best of past acquisition, and beyond this, to 
stimulate creative genius. At its best it was a genuine incentive 
to thought and enterprise in a rich, though somewhat circum- 
scribed field, — a great field however for the times. At its 
lowest it left one bound in the bare forms, non-spiritualized. 
Altogether it made a period of great spontaneity and achieve- 
ment, and served well as a preparation for exploration and 
creation in an unlimited field. Perhaps its motif may be 
best expressed by the word appreciation, — appreciation of the 
best in literature and art as a lift in the development of power. 
It was at heart aristocratic, and thus found its most character- 
istic function in class education. 

7. A new civic and individual ideal, in which two inspirat- 
ional thoughts coalesced, an ideal that was for modern 
times, with their more substantial and persistent spirit, the 
correlate of 2 and 3. The more steadying, pervasive, and en- 
during force of Christianity gave it a larger and deeper mean- 
ing and a new outlook and purpose. The ideal, faithfully ap- 
plied, brings the individual manifold power and makes him an 
effective user of his power and a useful and dependable citizen. 
The ideal halved, as has sometimes been true, leads to extreme 
individualism, from which the world has suffered much. But, 
taken in its completeness and in its genuine form, this ideal 
gives the best conditions for progress, a perfect balance of in- 
dividual and community interests. It secures individual ini- 
tiative, supports and strengthens the state organization that 
makes acquisition firm and gives it value, and develops the social 
spirit that is the mainstay of society. At heart it is democratic. 

8. Formal discipline. — In the course of this growth there 
has seemed to be an eighth ideal or partial ideal that held the 
field with others. It has given a certain thoroughness, exact- 
ness, and skill through rigid application and drill. Those who 
were not driven from the school, through repulsion for the 
process, gained a kind of greatness and power from " continu- 
ous association with great subjects," because they in some way 
caught the spirit from the matter, not the form, and felt the 



A REVIEW AND A FORECAST 347 

stimulus and enthusiasm for achievement that came with it. 
This was perhaps in spite of the ideal rather than because of it. 
For the average pupil it gave partial results rather than full 
development, form rather than spirit. In reality it was only 
a branch or accessory of method, not an ideal, and yet it has 
often so occupied the forefront of attention that it has seemed 
the ideal itself, rather than a means. 

These ideals have affected the secondary school more than 
any other part of school life, because it is the basal and cen- 
tral school, and thus has been the object of the most intensive 
educational effort. In application most of the ideals have 
missed the peculiar element that adapts them to pupils of the 
secondary age. This has been peculiarly unfortunate, because 
adolescence is especially a period of ideals and so is open to the 
influence of informing ideas more than any other period. 

Precedence of the secondary school in development and 
in civic functions. — But more interesting than this progres- 
sion of ideals is another matter that has been prominent in this 
historical study, the relative position and influence of the sec- 
ondary school in the community. The secondary school was 
the first school to be developed. Primitive peoples had a defi- 
nite organization for accomplishing a definite purpose for the 
age that corresponds to our secondary school age. It was the 
only organized form of education at that time, and was there- 
fore primary, not secondary. Up to this period of life children 
could gain in a natural way, without any special organization, 
what information and training were necessary. But the tribes- 
men saw in early adolescence certain characteristics that made 
it the period of definite instruction in an organized school. For 
the first time the child could see meanings and relations in more 
than an external way. For the first time he could be inspired 
with devotion that would lead him to defend and protect tribal 
ideals and conserve tribal life, even to the point of sacrifice. 
He now had the physique and the mental power to become a 
safe factor in tribal interests. Now for the first time he could 
appreciate and preserve tribal secrets, for he had reached the 
secretive age. Hence the best of the tribal inheritances could 
be explained, or exhibited, and given over to him as surety. 
The adolescent period is the time for showing meanings, inspir- 



348 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

ing, instructing, relating. The great purpose of education in 
this period is to give the adolescent the choicest treasures of the 
experience of the race and to initiate him into citizenship. 
Head men of the tribe therefore utilized it for inducting into 
great tribal ideas, for developing great tribal interests. The 
early tribes felt its opportuneness in a general way, felt it 
intuitively not as a result of specific reasoning. They saw that 
this secondary period meant more to the tribe than any other, 
and that education now was peculiarly essential for tribal exist- 
ence. The following period, later adolescence, was the one for 
giving technique and firm mastery, the practice that made the 
expert tribal citizen, the judgment and rude philosophy that 
made the tried adviser and manager. This came from partici- 
pation in tribal life. The boy was now a part of the tribal 
organization. This was his higher school. 

Higher education in early ages. — The higher education of 
the ancients attained its greatest development in the latter part 
of the early Greek period described in Chapter IV. 3 It there 
carried out precisely the spirit of primitive education, only the 
spirit was colored by the peculiar characteristics of Greek life. 
It was preceded, as in primitive education, by secondary in- 
struction in matters sacred to the Greek people. 

Coming of the elementary school. — The first change which 
affected this general plan of education was the introduction of 
written language, followed by the rapid growth of literature. 
It therefore became necessary to master the symbols of this 
written language. This was an initial and elementary process 
and fell naturally and logically to children. It was also a 
formal process and suggested organized educational forces to 

3 Higher education since then has developed special school forms, be- 
cause society has become specialized and divided. The solidarity of the 
tribe gave place to the looser organization of the nation. It became 
necessary therefore, when the boy, from his place in society, could no 
longer gain the training required to fit him for his duties, to establish 
special schools for the purpose. Again participation in community life 
came to be only partial. Hence special civic training in school became 
necessary. Later centuries so magnified the special training and mini- 
mized the general concrete civic training that a gap was finally left in 
education. Lately the public conscience has been somewhat aroused, 
and attempts of various sorts have been made to correlate school with 
life. 



A REVIEW AND A FORECAST 349 

compass it. Previously the school of nature and community 
life sufficed to meet the educational needs of the child. Now 
the need of another special school-form was felt. Inevitably 
the formal elementary school arose. 

Changes in the secondary school due to the coming of the 
elementary school. — But one must be able also to master 
the spirit of written language, — to feel, to appreciate, and to 
express feelingly and appreciatively. This attitude toward, and 
this kind of contact with, literature belongs to adolescence. 
Then for the first time the real appreciation of literature be- 
gins; feelings grow strong; love of eloquence develops. The 
formal part of language work must be over, so that youth may 
come to its real work. 4 The secondary school thus just as 
naturally took up this more advanced study of language and 
literature as the lower school busied itself with symbols, the 
early stage of reading, and memory gems. 

Development of linguistic study — Rise of the University. 
— We may look at it in another way. As society grew more 
complex the qualifications for serving it became more exacting. 
The value of language power for moving men and winning 
place and distinction became apparent. The natural education 
that in early Greece and Rome, as well as among primitive peo- 
ples, was sufficient for preparing men to serve the state could 
no longer suffice. As the result of the two lines of influ- 
ence new and higher institutions arose specially calculated 
to give the needed training both general and technical, the 

4 Modern psychology added another reason for assigning this work to 
the elementary school when it discovered that the years just before 
puberty are best for form work. 

The mastery of the symbols of language was at first the only neces- 
sary function of the elementary school, though the elements of number, 
an entirely minor matter, came into the elementary school very early, 
perhaps at the outset. (We should, however, here note again the typical 
Greek elementary curriculum.) Community life gave the rest, as it al- 
ways had done. The elementary school became a very serious matter. 
Hours were long, — from daylight to dark. The child was literally con- 
fined in the elementary school. Hence the natural mastery of the 
facts of nature and practical life, which tribal life had supplied, failed. 
To make good this serious loss various attempts were made, in succeed- 
ing centuries, to bring the child back to nature or nature back to the 
child. Da Feltre, Rousseau, Comenius, Pestalozzi, and a long line of 
others took up the case of the child and rescued school life from the 
bareness and abstractness that had so long characterized it. 



350 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

secondary school to give the specific language foundation, 
the school of oratory to supply the technical training. Thus 
two new phases of language study showed themselves, one 
typified by the study of grammar and composition, the other, 
to which the first led, by the study of rhetoric and oratory. 
These are the changes in education that were going on in the 
Greek period discussed in Chapter V. The logical outcome, 
however, is seen more clearly in the Roman schools. The first 
of the new phases of language study formalized the secondary 
school and began the tradition of formal discipline ; the second 
was higher or university work as organized by the classical 
nations. 

New relations of the secondary school and their effects. — 
A great change had thus come to the secondary school. It was 
wedged in between two growing schools. The elementary 
school prepared the way for it and prescribed for it on the one 
side ; the higher school prescribed and influenced on the other. 
The secondary master envied the teacher of rhetoric and 
trenched upon his province. The elementary school, with its 
prescriptions, and the pressure of a more complex society 
tended to make the secondary school an advanced school of let- 
ters with the intensive linguistic and rhetorical courses that 
have been described. The secondary school was thus beginning 
to lose its identity and to give up or minimize some of its most 
fundamental characteristics, though they were entirely consist- 
ent with its new position. It suffered a tremendous loss, 
realization of which finally set in motion a whole series of influ- 
ences pressing for reform in secondary education. 

The mediaeval university and its effect on the secondary 
school. — But the university of the later mediaeval centuries 
was the crowning development in school forms. Its rise was 
far more momentous in the history of education than the rise 
of universities in ancient Greece. Its origin was different. 
Its aims were higher, its implications were greater, its influ- 
ence was farther reaching than anything that had gone before. 
With the development of this later university came another 
episode in the history of the secondary school. It was not a 
distinctly new episode, but it was fraught with longer and 
larger consequences. 



A REVIEW AND A FORECAST 351 

The vassalage of the secondary school. — With the partial 
eclipse of education in the first millennium of the Christian era 
the newly developed university, finding difficulty in securing 
students who were prepared to take up its courses, took the 
natural alternative of preparing them itself. It thus had its 
own secondary schools within its own precincts, as seen in an 
earlier chapter. The university also profoundly influenced 
secondary schools outside, so that they felt a new stimulus and 
raised themselves to a higher standard. Henceforth, by what- 
ever name called, secondary schools were regarded as, in an 
important sense, existing for the university. They were pre- 
paratory schools and found their ends outside themselves. The 
secondary school thus came into the ownership of another, 
and a long vassalage began. The university at once proceeded 
to make certain requirements of the secondary school for its 
own ends. 

A change in the center of interest in education. — After 
a time the university gave over to the secondary school some of 
its own earlier tasks and imposed its methods. Added to this 
external pressure was the ambition of the secondary school to 
get for itself some of the attractive things of university educa- 
tion and university life. Secondary teachers trained in the uni- 
versity liked the more advanced work and method from which 
they had just come, and secondary pupils were fond of imitat- 
ing what they could not yet appreciate. 5 As a result of all, the 
secondary school got beyond its depth. It was lumbered with 
much that was totally beyond its power and unsuited to its 
characteristics. The center of interest had thus shifted. 
Originally it was the adolescent school, and everything pointed 
toward it, led up to it, or radiated from it. Now it was the 
university, and everything took its emphasis from it. 

This change in the nature of the secondary school was an 
artificial one, due to hasty organization suggested by the 
emergency of the moment. It was not natural, nor studied, nor 
scientific. Nevertheless it impressed itself deeply on the school 
organism. For six hundred years these relations of the two 

5 We may recall here what Quintilian said as to fondness of gram- 
mar masters for appropriating part of the work of the rhetorical schools. 
See Chapter IX. 



352 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

schools continued, becoming stronger with time and growth. 

The first break in the policy. — The real movement of the 
eighteenth century first broke this continuity. It started the 
development of a series of schools not bound to the university, 
though still keeping much of the old form and method. The 
establishment of the first high school in America early the next 
century gave secondary education another opportunity for 
initiative, and the outlook for a secondary school closely 
related to the people was bright. But almost immediately the 
university adopted the new school and made it one of the most 
intense and exacting preparatory schools of all. There has 
therefore been little change in the relation of secondary and 
higher education till within the last decades. The eighteenth 
century real movement was significant only in making a cleavage 
in secondary education, rather than in modifying the relations 
of existing schools. 6 This modification was left for the late 
years of the nineteenth century and for the early twentieth 
century. During these years school agencies, working not so 
much for independent as for adaptable secondary education, 
have succeeded in modifying and reforming university-high 
school relations. 7 There have therefore been two movements, 
one to establish divergent series of schools and their higher 
correlates adapted to modern life, the other to readjust rela- 
tions between secondary education and higher education in gen- 
eral. 

Emancipation of the secondary school. — The real genius 
of educational development is to push out into higher forms, — 
into more complete equipment. The lower needs the inspira- 
tion of the higher. The higher needs the stimulus and help of 
the lower. In this movement the old university has undergone 
quite as much modification as the old secondary school. What 
has been taking place is really an emancipation of the second- 
ary school that will leave it free to work out its real spirit for 
the interests of all, and will have the effect of making both the 
higher and the lower school face modern life in a cooperative 
way, so that each will use the other in supplying broader train- 

6 For most of the nineteenth century the secondary school continued 
practically as a preparatory school. 

7 See Chapter XIX, pp. 300 ff., and notes, and p. 309. 



A REVIEW AND A FORECAST 353 

ing for the small but increasing number of those who can take 
an extended course of study. At the same time it will permit 
the high school to serve efficiently and appreciatively as a gen- 
eral training ground for that large body of adolescents that 
must confine its education to this school. 

The movement to make the secondary school again the cen- 
tral institution, responsive to its own ideals and needs, is a most 
interesting phase of educational development. In studying and 
solving the problem of bringing this school to its own again we 
need to realize how deep are the roots of the problem, how 
long a history it has had. 

Pressing problems of the secondary school. — This problem 
at first sight strikes the attention prominently and has been 
engaging thought in all parts of the world. But there are other 
secondary school problems more fundamental, because they 
grow out of the nature of the secondary pupil and the nature 
of the educational process, — problems of means and ends, of 
scope and organization, of curriculum, method, and administra- 
tion. Their solution will materially affect the solution of the 
first and more external and superficial problem. Here it is 
particularly important to have a thorough knowledge of the 
history of secondary education and be able to follow its evolu- 
tion, if we are to find the basal causes and reach definite and 
permanent results ; for the problems, — their relations, their 
form, and their implications, — reach far back. 

The future. — As the high school appears on the edge of the 
twentieth century we find not only large and worthy achieve- 
ments standing to its credit, but certain very definite opportuni- 
ties and needs calling it. In the case of any individual organ- 
ism the body develops before the spirit. In the world organ- 
ism present events make it only too manifest that the body has 
developed far beyond the spirit. Civilization at first pioneers 
and grasps at the most obvious necessities. In the development 
of high school education the same condition exists, — perhaps 
unnecessarily, but still no less definitely, and no less worthy of 
solicitude. It is wisdom to face the situation frankly. The 
external has outstripped the internal. More attention has been 
given to administration than to organization, to forms and 
curricula than to content and method, to teachers' knowledge 



354 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

than to training for the teaching profession, to the formal 
demands of business and society, of college and technical 
school, than to real appreciation of the aims of the high school 
and its fuller relations to what is around and beyond it, to 
formal study than to a realization of adolescent qualities and 
adjustments, of what is after all the most vital preparation for 
all the ultimate purposes and stages of development that have 
been referred to. Just demands upon the high school there- 
fore have often been lost sight of. Over against striking and 
most useful gains must be set the things still left to be done, 
and that with no disparagement of present accomplishments. 
The twentieth century thus has its work clearly marked out in 
these particulars and faces no inconsiderable task, — all the 
harder because it is not yet fully realized and appreciated by 
the general school public. 

Three needs. — As the last century closed the high school 
was waiting confidently for three things, — I, a reorganization 
of its curriculum-content, old and new; 2, changes in method 
based upon psychological principles; 3, a new spirit and aim 
and an organization consonant with them that would relate the 
school more closely to life and the ideas of democracy. The 
first had its beginning with the German realists and had been 
progressing very slowly since. It remained to eliminate the 
outworn, to adapt the new to the old more perfectly, and to 
adapt all more fully to new aims and ends. The second was 
initiated by Comenius and Pestalozzi, and was advanced by the 
German realists abroad and by Agassiz and his students and 
kindred spirits in this country. It touched the secondary 
school through the elementary school and the university, but 
it touched it rather lightly for a long time, for the secondary 
school has always been a laggard here and not an enterprising 
student of the psychology and pedagogy of adolescence. A 
method carefully differentiated from elementary school method, 
on the one hand, and from college method, on the other, was 
still to be developed. Too long it had been assumed that one 
general method applies to all cases, and that a special method 
for teaching a subject may be applied uniformly at any age of 
the pupil. The third reform was coming slowly through scien- 
tific study and through discussion from three view-points, first, 



A REVIEW AND A FORECAST 355 

the history of the secondary school that furnishes the key to 
an understanding of the problem and its implications ; second, 
the study of adolescence and of genetic psychology ; and third, 
a closer investigation of the just relations of secondary educa- 
tion to the present organization of society. 

Variety without unity. — This analysis brings out one 
side. To state the situation in another way and with special 
reference to our own country, it may be said that the last cen- 
tury was at once a transitional and an initial one. It had the 
characteristics natural to such a period. It would seem the 
counterpart of the early Christian era. Pressed by new ideas 
and new demands, distracted by the breaking up of old rela- 
tions and the establishment of new ones, it had turned spas- 
modically now in this direction, now in that, as the circum- 
stances of the moment suggested, and as a single ray of light 
directed. Conditions for settled forms did not exist. It was 
a time of experimenting. Orientation had been imperfect. 
Impulse unsupported by careful scientific judgment had been 
the guide. Education had felt a way rather than made a way. 
Many guiding facts had been lacking, and those present had 
been unorganized. Hence it had been a period of variety 
without unity in secondary education, of multiplicity of forms 
without the definite crystallization of types. The work had 
thus been external. It was for a new century to classify, to 
organize, to give scientific substance and unity, in place of 
shifting ideas and forms. This involved a new study of the 
whole of education as applied to current needs. 

Another generalization — Progress in democratizing sec- 
ondary education. — Still another generalization from a differ- 
ent point of view will be interesting, and it will help us to appre- 
ciate the condition at the end of the century and to interpret the 
signs of the coming epoch in secondary education. When 
the eighteenth century closed secondary education was essen- 
tially aristocratic, accessible only to certain classes, this partly 
because of national sentiment and consequent administrative 
restrictions, and partly because of prohibitive expense. Little 
change was made in the social relations of the secondary school 
till the nineteenth century was well-nigh spent. Its last decades 
saw great progress in accessibility of secondary education, in 



356 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

urgency to take advantage of its larger opportunities and in 
readiness to respond to them. 8 It remained for the twen- 
tieth century to democratize it, to open it to all classes by abol- 
ishing administrative hindrances, and, by relieving or remov- 
ing individual expense, to press its claims on all, till its full 
power is realized. 

Reasons for extending secondary education. — Every indi- 
vidual is entitled to freedom. Education sets the individual 
free to develop his power to high possibilities. Individual 
power settled, collective power is assured. Education, rightly 
conceived and administered, is a selective process that deter- 
mines and measures a nation's assets. To disclose a nation's 
real strength it must select from the many, not from the few. 
Even the poorest that goes through the process becomes a more 
effective agent by a margin sufficient to balance the cost of the 
process. Certain censors, by the fiat of individual judgment 
based on partial data and on aristocratic notions, would restrict 
the ministries of higher forms of education to certain groups 
that show promise in earlier stages of education. This is a 
dangerous policy. Tests at one period of life, whether of indi- 
vidual or race, are for that period alone and do not apply to 
a later period, when all conditions are changed and a new 
growth, quantitatively and qualitatively, is proceeding. It may 
often happen that ability of a high order does not appear in 
early years. If education is limited to this period, this ability 
may never be found. Education, if honestly and continuously 
applied, is a great discoverer. It goes straight to the main- 
springs of action and discloses whatever power is there. It 
should be offered to all in unstinted measure and should thor- 
oughly test and evaluate all. 

Universal secondary education a special discoverer of 
power. — Elementary education, made universal, opened up a 
certain proportion of the human resources of the nation and 
world, and put in motion a certain degree of national and world 
power. Universal secondary education will make it possible 
to utilize resources and power, not in a second degree merely, 
but in a far higher degree, because of the peculiar vantage 
ground of secondary pupils, recognized in all ages and nations 

s See Chapter XIX. 



A REVIEW AND A FORECAST 357 

from primitive times on. 9 Adolescence teems with peculiar 
power that needs encouragement, direction, adjustment, special 
development, in short, a refining process, to fulfil its best. Ele- 
mentary education deals largely with facts and forms and 
the simpler habits of life. Secondary education deals with 
great interests and enthusiasms and the higher and the final 
motive forces that project the individual into the technique of 
civic and industrial life. It is the time for making world 
citizens. Citizenship will be of a far higher type if the sec- 
ondary period of education has the making of it. To be sepa- 
rated from solicitous school training, when the power that 
makes the citizen who makes the state is in the most critical 
stage of development, is a public calamity. 

Universal in primitive times. — Secondary education was 
universal in the primitive tribes. The life of the tribe required 
it. As the civic unit grew, civilization neglected or restricted 
it. Old emphases were dimmed or lost; new emphases were 
not developed. Civilization in turn must restore what has been 
lost and add to it, if it is to be protected in systematic, safe, 
and effective development. We are no farther from universal 
secondary education, free to all, than the world once was from 
the same degree of elementary education. 

What is to be the outcome? We instinctively forecast the 
future. In doing this it is evidently more natural, more profit- 
able, and, at the same time, safer to consider the secondary 
school nearest us, — in some ways the most significant of all 
secondary schools, the High School of the United States. Each 
nation, while sharing in all the general movements of second- 
ary education, has its own special history and, with it, its indi- 
vidual views and aims. Each has, and for some time will 
continue to have, its own distinctive policy in secondary educa- 
tion. All nations, however, are steadily assimilating their sec- 
ondary schools to certain types that a constantly growing com- 
munity of interests and the increasing similarity of life condi- 

9 At present there are in the U. S. 11,500,000 persons between 15 
and 19 years of age (inclusive). Of these 4,100,000 are in school. Of 
5,600,000 between fifteen and sixteen (inclusive) 3,100,000 are in school. 
A large task is therefore in front of us, as shown elsewhere. Full fig- 
ures are given in the last Report of the Commissioner of Education, 
1914-15. 



358 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

tions the world over dictate. It is best here therefore to con- 
sider the future of our High School and leave the history and 
present and future status of other individual secondary school 
systems, — those of England, Germany, and France, for a 
separate volume. 10 

10 See also Chapter XIX, pp. 301 f. 



XXIII 

THE HIGH SCHOOL OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY PROGRAMS 

OF STUDIES AND CURRICULA 

Limitations of a forecast. — Can we, even in outline, por- 
tray the typical high school of the twentieth century ? Yes and 
no. No, if on the basis of the interpretation of the secondary 
school to-day we attempt to apply certain preconceived notions 
of secondary education, or if we try to determine too many 
details that only the circumstances of the time can decide. Yes, 
if we have interpreted the signs of the last epoch rightly, if we 
take into consideration the convictions of leaders who are most 
intimately engaged in secondary school work to-day and get 
their view-points, and if we bring to bear on the matter an 
historical imagination that has been constantly exercised in an 
attempt to form clear and sympathetic mental pictures of the 
feelings, ambitions, and conditions that determined ideals and 
forms of secondary education in different epochs of its devel- 
opment. Any forecast thus seriously made is of value in 
stimulating secondary school thought, whether all agree as to 
the forecast or not. 

In outlining the general form and modes of the coming high 
school we must keep in mind one or two fundamental thoughts 
that are to inform and infuse all that is said, whether men- 
tioned specifically in every case or not. 

The high school the key to national development. — It 
must, then, be recognized in all discussions of this kind that the 
high school is the key to the future development of the nation. 
A new mentality, new motives, new ambitions and enthusiasms, 
and a new physical life are the conditions with which the sec- 
ondary school has to deal on the human side. At the high, 
school age the great guiding habits of life, mental, physical, 
and, the resultant of the two, moral, are forming, adolescing. 
Great fields of thought and effort are being explored with ado- 

359 



360 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

lescent zest. Great trends of interest are being determined. 
The high school period is not so much a preparatory period as 
a determining and dominant one. It is not merely a second 
step or epoch in the evolution of the finished social agent ; it is 
the central epoch. Its training is not a mere limb of education ; 
it is its central nervous system. It is not a stage up the hill ; it 
is a hill-top, with other hill-tops in sight, it may be, but still a 
hill-top, if not the hill-top. These different figures that rep- 
resent secondary education as a preparation, a part of a system, 
an evolution, or, poetically, as the climbing of some fair 
mount, serve to emphasize the critical nature of this period of 
education. Our whole study has impressed upon us this fact, 
that the high school is the determining factor in American 
school life. It makes the university and conditions all that 
the university does, as it gives the growing pupil his " set " in 
life. Primitive man felt this dominance ; later man knows it. 

A change in the aim of the high school. — The aim of high 
school education, as was shown in Chapter XXI, is therefore 
not to be from without, either generally from some higher 
institution, or, more particularly, from the urgency of some 
study with its compact body of facts and principles and its influ- 
ential clientele to press on its claims and dictate its methods. 
The aim is to be from within, guided by a sympathetic study 
of the secondary school period and its implications and obliga- 
tions. The idea has had a slow beginning. Habits of educa- 
tion, rooted in a strong educational polity that a former age 
developed and found peculiarly adapted to itself, both socially 
and politically, are naturally, and psychologically have to be, 
obstinate factors to modify. The new century is to bring to 
the front the real mission of the high school and provide for its 
ample fulfilment. Applying these ideas each form and process 
of the high school takes on new meanings and shows new 
possibilities. 

Growth in the program of studies. — To begin with the 
program of studies, we shall find, by reviewing recent pages, 
that a very interesting development is in progress. We found 
that in the latter half of the nineteenth century modern studies 
came rapidly into the curriculum. Of the old studies Greek had 
passed as a required subject. Latin remained, but it was not 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 361 

such an absolute requirement as before. Mathematics still 
kept their place, but they had begun to share their prestige 
with other studies. Science, history, and the fine arts had 
been adopted into the curriculum. The study of the vernacular 
was showing a finer development, to fill the place left by the 
waning classics; the previous enterprising classical study had 
paved the way for it. Vocational subjects had begun to make 
a definite place for themselves but they lacked standing. 

How studies come into the program — Study changes in 
the twentieth century high school. — Studies come into the 
school in response to certain definite conditions. Conditions 
change, but conservatism tends to keep the studies and maintain 
their old importance. This is well illustrated by Latin. 1 
Hence some educational material and some educational ends out- 
live their usefulness in the way in which they are applied. The 
secondary school to-day still clings to that which is outworn 
either in itself or in its method of application. The new cen- 
tury will advance the process of expurgation. It will see Latin 
reduced to an elective study. Algebra and geometry will not 
hold the same absolute position as to-day, nor will they lay 
claim to the same comparative training value. Science will be 
made more concrete and adaptable. The mechanic and fine 
arts are to have wider and finer applications. The vernacular 
will have a new development, unhampered by traditional clas- 
sical methods that dominated all language study so long and 
still have great influence. It will prove an educational agent 
superior to Latin even in its own field. History is to become 
a more vital study, especially that phase of it called civics, 
which has often been a rather perfunctory member of the 

1 In early epochs the secondary school ministered to the few ; prepara- 
tion for professional life was simple and traditional; in politics absolut- 
ism favored a formal, memory study, such as Latin then was, rather 
than a study that developed independence and initiative. Latin was 
moreover a daily professional necessity, or was the only available liter- 
ary language, in fact the only study that offered itself as a medium of 
mental training. Under such circumstances a more or less thorough 
discipline in Latin served as an excellent propaedeutic to life. These 
conditions passed, but Latin remained with claims unmodified. 

Again, well known circumstances (see XIX) gave us Greek in the 
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These conditions passed. Because 
Greek had less momentum than Latin in the curriculum, it quickly gave 
way and became an optional study. 



3 62 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

group of high school studies. Its most striking development in 
the new high school is to be in the direction of " community 
civics." Through this new motif it is to take on new life and 
value. 2 With it will go a study of sociology, which by a simple 
and concrete method will open up a new world to high school 
students, revealing to them the fundamental forces of society, 
helping them especially to analyze and appreciate the local 
community of which they are a part, and cultivating a spirit 
of service. Vocational subjects will increase in popularity and 
in real value, and will assume a leading place. But, what is 
perhaps more significant than anything else in connection with 
high school studies, the physical side of education will be more 
definitely represented. There is thus to be a clear revision of 
the program of studies. There will be a more striking revision 
of the content of studies, but this point will be more appropri- 
ately treated later. 

General character of study and instruction. — All these 
studies have a great future before them, because they lie at 
the foundation of the business and amenities of life. The 
twentieth century high school will not tolerate anything super- 
ficial in any of them. The new studies are to receive as broad 
and thorough treatment as any studies the high school has ever 
seen or heard of, and their demands upon the pupil will be as 
insistent. Even the newest studies that meet with disparage- 
ment in some quarters at first are to have as whole-souled 
respect and consideration and as careful planning as any, that 
they may do their part in developing intelligence, skill, and 
power, together with public-spirited efficiency. Cultural and 
practical are to unite in them, as in others. Work it is, solid, 
thorough, enthusiastic work, that here, as everywhere, will 
develop fineness of fibre and inspiration to real efficiency. 

2 To indicate the possibilities of such a course, especially when com- 
bined with sociology, the following outline by Mr. Clarence D. Kingsley, 
of the Massachusetts Board of Education, is suggestive : — 

Essentials of community welfare: — 

1. Health 6. Wealth, with its correlate, char- 

2. Recreation ities 

3. Education 7. Beauty 

4. Protection of life and property 8. Communication 

5. Order in society (with its cor- 9. Transportation 

relate, correction) 10. Migration. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 363 

Different kinds of thoroughness. — But this caution should 
be given, that there are different kinds of solidity and different 
kinds of thoroughness. There is one kind for adolescents, 
another for adults. We are here speaking of adolescents. 
Thoroughness has been a favorite word in education. It has 
often been applied inconsiderately, without noting that it is 
not an absolute nor a uniform term. What is said farther 
on as to study-content and method will be suggestive in this 
connection. 

Number and range of subjects. — The names of studies thus 
far mentioned in connection with the program of studies are 
class names rather than individual names. Each one of them 
represents a whole group of specific studies. In the aggregate 
we have a multitude. There is, however, no danger of having 
too many. Adolescence needs a wide field for exploration 
before determining its settled interests. Even the old studies 
that conservatism leaves side by side with those that are more 
modern and that respond more fully to modern conditions, 
meet a natural interest in many, either for culture or for prac- 
tical purposes. They may safely remain, provided there is no 
exaction in regard to them. 3 In this wide range of particular 
studies there is very definite unity, because they are classified 
in a few well-marked groups, as already indicated. In the 
coming high school the main guide will be groups of studies, 
rather than individual studies. 

Vocational studies and physical education to be the dis- 
tinguishing characteristics of the new program of studies. — 
As far as the program of studies is concerned the most con- 
spicuous characteristic of the twentieth century high school 
will be its devotion to vocational education and physical edu- 
cation. As to vocational education it should be noted that it 
is not a new idea or policy. The curriculum of early schools 
was vocational in the extreme when it was establishing itself 
in remote centuries. 4 We have simply forgotten what the 

3 Latin and Greek are still very useful subjects under certain con- 
ditions. Work done in them has had great educational value. Only 
an equally enterprising training in the vernaculars can serve as an 
excuse for supplanting them. 

4 See Chapters XII and XIII. The term, vocational, is a misleading 
one, almost a misnomer. It actually means that education which pre- 



364 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

vocations were and how the curriculum tried to meet them. 
The educational world has failed to keep the school closely 
related to vocations and to make it a full expression of the 
vocational idea, as was the case in the old school. The special 
significance of the whole vocational movement lies in the fact 
that the high school is no longer to rest on by-gone educational 
facts. It can no longer calm a rising educational conscience by 
tacking on here and there a new bit, without providing for 
more than a superficial articulation with the old. The twen- 
tieth century high school will make the vocational aim an 
integral part of high school polity and work it out effectively. 

Vocations in modern times have been left in an anomalous 
position, as far as definite educational preparation is concerned. 
The future will demand thorough educational preparation for 
what we now regard as simple apprentice crafts. Various 
curricula adapted to different vocations will be laid out giving 
broad education as well as technical training. Only this will 
give real command of vocations. Only this will assure sound, 
happy, and progressive mental and industrial life. One great 
nation has proved its value as a means of occupying its oppor- 
tunities in a rather wonderful way. Others must do the same. 
The inexorable law of the survival of the fittest will enforce 
this policy, if we do not heed higher and more beneficent laws. 

The vocational idea part of a larger idea — " Social Utili- 
ties." — The vocational idea that is justly so prominent to- 
day and is to be more insistent in the future is only a part of a 
larger idea. A new scheme of concentration, not yet worked 
out, makes " social utilities " the starting point in determining 
the details of a curriculum. There will not be new study- 
names, but there will be ends and directions different from 
those that now rule, better adapted to high school pupils, more 
practical, and at the same time more cultural. The idea of 
" social utilities " again is not a new one, but a more scientific 
application of an old idea, and particularly an application to 

pares one for his occupation, whether high or low, broad or narrow. 
In its current use it is thought of as applying to humbler occupations, 
more particularly those that are mechanical and commercial. Educa- 
tion for the so-called learned professions is vocational education as 
much as the other. Education has always been vocational, but it has 
been narrowly so. We are now simply extending it to its just limits. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 365 

new conditions. The old curriculum, 5 as it started, was an 
expression of social utilities. The utilities were those of the 
time. The " curriculum " 5 became stereotyped. Utilities 
changed and grew. There is going on a re-thinking of social 
utilities. Educators and the public are trying to find the real 
utilities of the present and to represent them genuinely and 
broadly on the high school program. The vocational aim 
would objectify education. The social utility aim would 
objectify it more broadly, because it directs attention to com- 
munity as well as to individual ideals. 

Education the greatest social utility. — In a way this idea 
makes education subjective as well as objective, for, if rightly 
applied, it stimulates pupils to make education an interpreter 
of outside obligations and to think of courses and curricula in 
terms of public service as well as of personal advancement, or 
rather in terms of personal advancement through public serv- 
ice. It encourages them also to think of education itself as the 
greatest social utility. Studies thus become more than formal 
training factors; they become agencies of social efficiency. 
The new studies are not to be ends, but merely agents in bring- 
ing the pupil into contact with present day life at its strongest 
and in equipping him to subserve and advance it with some 
power of initiative under the inspiration of community spirit. 

Physical education fundamental. — The second distinguish- 
ing characteristic of the coming high school program, as already 
suggested, will be its contributions to physical education. This 
point calls for a more special word than others, because it has 
come less definitely and seriously into the program of studies 
and because some phases of physical education are not even 
yet thought of as legitimate parts of that program. The whole 
matter has oftener than otherwise been an object of indiffer- 
ence and neglect, or at least has had but accidental care. The 
physical is more fundamental than history or geography, science 
or mathematics, or any other courses. All that concerns 
physical development therefore has a superior claim on the 
attention and effort of teachers. 

Misplaced physical education. — The physical and the men- 
tal sides of education require very fine adjustment to prevent 

5 " Curriculum " and " program of studies " were identical then. 



3 66 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

them from hindering one another. Physical education may 
easily be so conducted as to times, seasons, and amounts, and 
as to its relations to other parts of education, that the mental 
powers will be rendered dull and heavy instead of buoyant. 
The twentieth century high school is to work out these rela- 
tions justly. 

Character of work in physiology and hygiene. — In coming 
curricula there will be a definite study of physiology and 
hygiene, but largely of a biological nature and of the most con- 
crete type, calculated to develop a healthy interest and sound 
and broad thinking on the subject. But, more and better than 
this, physical training in the high school is to consist largely 
in the practice of hygienic living. The whole school life and 
all school conditions are to be so organized that this practice 
will become a natural and regular part of the pupil's regimen. 
It is habits that we need, to make the study of the physical of 
any value. The pupil is to write his own book on physiology 
in living characters. 

Hygiene of school plant and school room. — In the first 
place special attention is to be given to the school plant and 
the school room. The adolescent is in a state that is well 
called unstable equilibrium. Everything suggests tension. 
Light, temperature, seat conditions, air space, and particularly 
the general environment of the school are to be such that the 
least possible strain will result. These things are not mere 
conveniences for formal school work, though they sometimes 
seem to be considered as such, but they have a definite func- 
tion to perform in promoting physical well-being and develop- 
ment and in determining educational results generally. More 
scientific investigation of this topic and better ideals are to 
come. 

More work outside — Less work with books and labor- 
atories inside. — In the second place more of the school work 
is to be done out of doors. Entirely aside from open-air 
classes, which have a distinct mission, there is to be less of 
books and close laboratories within brick walls and more work 
with the greater books and laboratories outside. Such methods 
will bring stronger scholarship, more real appreciation, a bet- 
ter foundation for life, as well as for the university, — a 



THE" TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 367 

stronger man on all sides, more appreciative of nature and of 
community life. History, civics, economics, physiography, 
geology, botany, physics, chemistry, and even Latin will be the 
better for such work. They all give opportunities for the 
abounding activity and the peculiar impulses to expression 
found in adolescence. 

Physical exercises — Games and sports. — In the third place 
stress is to be laid upon the physical development that comes 
through physical exercises of the school, and particularly 
through games, sports, and general out-door exercise that 
appeal to adolescent life. Physical training involves not only 
games, but competitive games, for they are as much a part of 
it as special-interest exercises are a part of history, or as con- 
tests in writing and debating are of courses in English, or draw- 
ing competition of the course in art. But their function is 
that of developing interest, not that of climax, as has too often 
been the case. 

Advance in athletics. — With the possible exception of Eng- 
land little advance in athletics has been made for two thousand 
years. Most of the time there has been actual retrogression. 
The matter was taken up where it was left so long ago, and 
not infrequently the imitation has fallen short of the original. 
Much of the talk about athletics has been of the contagious, 
imitative sort. In fact feeling and thought here give one of 
the finest illustrations of the " psychology of the mob." This 
has been true in part of writing upon the subject, but there has 
been more evidence of balanced judgment in this direction. 
The twentieth century high school is to remedy all this. It 
is to organize and administer athletic interests as an intimate 
part of its educational scheme. 

Adolescent characteristics guide. — But the high school must 
do this with a warm appreciation of adolescent needs. There 
are certain well marked adolescent characteristics that must 
guide in this. Two claim our attention at the outset, — one 
looking back, the other looking forward. On the one hand 
there is something elemental in adolescent physical nature, — a 
love of force and of feats of pure strength for their own sake, 
an exultation in might as might, a keen delight in the mere 
feeling of stress and strain. This is a natural outcropping of 



368 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

exuberant adolescent nature, not a perversion. It is as worthy 
of recognition as any other adolescent characteristic. On the 
other hand, the adolescent has reached the organizing age, as 
opposed to the particularizing tendencies of the earlier school 
period. At the same time he shows some appreciation of art. 
He can appreciate good form, articulation of parts, not the 
finest, but effective, and that which results from these, a feat 
of skill, which is art made practical. Put together these two 
marked characteristics, giving each the importance due the 
developing adolescent, and we shall get a fine combination of 
native force and skill and art in place of crude force. The 
elemental has run riot and monopolized attention under a 
laissez-faire policy. This elemental must be directed and sup- 
plemented, and other forces must be guided and strengthened. 
This is education. Legitimate development of athletics is as 
much a part of education as training in algebra, probably more 
so. This part of education, like others, must be accomplished 
by instruction, not coaching, which has as little place as exami- 
nation tutoring. Not rules, nor faculty regulations, but in- 
struction, involving contests, is to be the fundamental agency 
in the case. We cannot legislate ideals here any more than we 
can legislate morality. We can and must provide conditions 
and opportunities and take athletics into our school plan. The 
" coach " must be raised to the position of a regular instructor, 
and he must have an all-round training for his work. 

More variety in athletics. — Another adolescent character- 
istic, quite as important, must be taken into account. The 
adolescent has no settled attention or intention. There has 
been an upheaval of physical and mental life, and he has not 
settled down to regularity. The will is not yet finally steadied. 
This, added to the obvious fact that interests are not uniform 
in any group of individuals, dictates a variety of interests in 
athletics. The stream of athletic spirit will not be satisfied 
with two or three channels. Yet the weight of influence and 
recognition has been thrown in only a very few directions, 
(practically in three), of one particular phase of athletics. 
Wide sympathies will help in the solution of the problem. 
There must be official recognition of many forms of games 
and sports, as well as of various general physical exercises 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 369 

which have not crystallized into games; and physical feeling 
and sentiment must be developed in new lines as occasion arises. 
If, with effort, and sometimes with considerable effort, enthusi- 
asm has been roused for some of the current forms of sports, 
the same can be done for others suited to adolescent life. 
Football really attracts but a mere handful of students for 
actual participation, baseball another handful, aquatics an- 
other. With so many adolescent physical interests this is to be 
expected. The twentieth century high school is to recognize 
the fact that the athletic side of physical training represents a 
group of interests ; it is to make this group an intimate part of 
every curriculum and to treat it as generously as any group for 
its training possibilities. 

The physical side of education with broad instruction and 
varied application, including games, is therefore to form an 
essential part of the high school program. The new high 
school is to be as sharply distinguished from the old by this 
fact as by its contributions to vocational education. 

But there is another side of physical education that the twen- 
tieth century high school will include among its courses. The 
study of social hygiene, and particularly sex hygiene, will be 
even more characteristic of the new epoch in secondary educa- 
tion than what has just been noted. One of the basal problems 
involved in every institution and every constructive movement 
for the betterment of society is related to sex hygiene. The 
problem is an insistent one because it has thus far been ignored 
or treated in an apologetic and academic way. A taboo has 
been placed upon it that is absolutely unjustifiable. One diffi- 
culty has been that the subject lies at the meeting place of two 
psychologies, the psychology of the adolescent and the psy- 
chology of the adult, neither of which appreciates the other, one 
because of its immaturity, the other because it has forgotten. 
That the study of sex hygiene in the high school is imperative 
can be shown in many ways and from many points of 
view, without giving any countenance to certain statements of 
irresponsible high school critics. The adolescent is now left 
to organize a whole group of vital adolescent qualities related to 
sex and to develop them with absolutely no systematic education 
or guidance. With a more sympathetic knowledge of the psy- 



370 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

chology of adolescence, particularly with a more accurate and 
vivid understanding of those attitudes and impulses, ideas and 
powers that refer to the maturing of sex functions and the cor- 
relative development of the social instinct, and with larger 
views of the relation of secondary instruction to social prob- 
lems, the coming high school is to bring the subject of sex 
hygiene to the place of honor and importance that it deserves in 
any program of studies. Instruction rightly fortified purifies ; 
ignorance courts evil. 

A high school course in sex hygiene must be built upon co- 
operation in the home, involving the removal of an essentially 
criminal taboo and the substitution of naturalness balanced by 
advice and instruction, and upon preparatory work in the ele- 
mentary school, so that, when adolescence is reached, young 
people will not think of sex and social ideas as strange, forbid- 
den topics, but will look upon them so naturally that they will 
cause no remark, not even the lifting of a brow. Building upon 
this antecedent work the high school may prepare simple 
courses adapted to adolescence. 6 The general aim of such 
courses will be to meet the craving for knowledge of the mys- 
teries of life current at this period and bound to be satisfied in 
some way, to build up natural and helpful ideas and habits, and 
to lay a foundation for personal hygiene of the highest type. 
Prominent among the specific aims will be, to develop a pure 
and wholesome interest in sex matters, to impress with the facts 
of sex hygiene, to arouse a wholesome fear of illicit and abusive 
use of sex organs, and correlatively to stimulate a pride in 
family and race which such abuse retards in physical and men- 
tal power and in prestige, and eventually brings to dishonor and 
decay. 

The principle or spirit of the work will be frankness as to 
reproductive processes, absolute naturalness, but not baldness, 
free from all embarrassment. 

Courses in sex hygiene will include instruction and training 
as to sex matters in general and as to personal sex ideals. The 

6 To outline in detail studies for the elementary school and courses 
for teachers and pupils in the high school, with extension courses 
needed for general instruction, is beyond the purpose here. All that 
will be attempted will be to suggest aims and some of the larger features 
of instruction. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 371 

age is favorable; means are abundant. Instruction will of 
course be given in connection with the study of natural science, 
particularly biology. This instruction will be merely incidental 
and correlated, but at the same time it will be of great value for 
the great purpose in view. The main reliance will be upon 
specific courses in sex and social hygiene, which shall em- 
phasize, in one direction, the value of sound sex organs and 
the danger of abuse, with concrete illustrations from the wealth 
of cases open to any one who seeks, and, in the other direction, 
the obligations of the individual as a social factor. As a 
foundation for such work the courses will include a sensible 
study of sex physiology fully in accord with the pedagogy of 
adolescence. 

Correlatively with this instruction, to give it real value, a 
school spirit must be established and embodied in dynamic ideas 
and aims. On the one hand the school must impress as one of 
its ideals a well-developed physique, with the suggestion that 
sex abuse often results from some physical unevenness and un- 
soundness, from a loose physical screw somewhere. On the 
other hand the school must encourage wide interests and sym- 
pathies that will furnish exercise for the mind, particularly for 
the emotional life, with the idea that a person of narrow in- 
terests and thought is more likely to give attention to unhealthy 
sex suggestions. Both mental and physical gaps require filling 
and it is in no small part owing to this principle that thoughts 
turn toward sex matters. If the void is filled with things worth 
while, the current of sex thought may often be turned off. 
With its rich courses and its work in vocational guidance, more 
broadly termed educational guidance, for it is such, especially 
with its finer adjustment to present social needs and social utili- 
ties, the twentieth century high school is in a strategic position 
to plan for each student a broad curriculum that will supply 
these " filling interests." 

Program of studies and curriculum. — We found that in the 
last century it was no longer possible to speak of a single cur- 
riculum in the secondary school, but of a program of studies 
that divided itself into several curricula, having some studies in 
common, it is true, but yet essentially distinct. This diversity 
of studies and curricula very naturally brought in the principle 



372 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

of election, generally election between different well-marked 
curricula. The new century is to extend the principle to wider 
choice, because preparation in every line is broadening and be- 
cause general ends are complex. The mechanic arts depart- 
ment, or the scientific department, for example, will offer 
preparation for several differentiated vocations, each requiring 
a somewhat different line of training. 

Each department to have a program of studies divisible 
into several curricula. — In other words, in the twentieth cen- 
tury high school we shall not be able to speak of a scientific cur- 
riculum (or " course "), a mechanic arts curriculum, etc. Each 
department will become so broad, will contain so many separate 
technical studies, and will profitably include for general train- 
ing, as a foundation for special training, so many studies from 
the general high school program, that it will have its own special 
program of studies. From this program different curricula 
will be formed to meet individual cases and the needs of whole 
groups of pupils. Election will therefore have broader scope 
in the high school. 

Election to give place to educational guidance — Voca- 
tional guidance. — But election is a crude agency working to- 
ward a great end. It is to give place to educational guidance 
and issue in vocational guidance. 7 Both educational guidance 
and vocational guidance involve several very definite condi- 
tions, — opportunity to exploit several lines of interest, before 
settling on a final choice ; confidential relations between teacher 
and pupil as a basis for frank and intimate talks ; methods of 
presentation, including adaptation of content, that will show 
the study, or course, or group, or occupation and their implica- 
tions at their real value. 

A study of vocations. — But further than this, true voca- 
tional guidance implies and necessitates the addition of a new 
study to the program, a study of vocations, that will take rank 
as one of the most important studies of the high school. The 
method of teaching and administering this study will involve 

7 Educational guidance is to be more important than vocational guid- 
ance, or rather, the latter is to be so broadened and is to become so 
fully a part of the school program, instead of a supplementary and 
gratuitous matter, that the two will coincide. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 373 

the collection of full and enlightening data as to occupations 
and trades, — not mere figures and commercial items, but his- 
tory, past and present, opportunities for advancement and cul- 
ture, means of organizing one's life in the trade and vocations 
so as to develop an all-round, public spirited man or woman, 
and various other details of a kindred nature. Such topics will 
form a basis for investigation and discussion, on the part of 
students and teachers, that will not only furnish a body of prac- 
tical knowledge, but will afford means of thought training and 
personal development equal to any in the school. Educational 
guidance will thus become not a superficial and perfunctory 
matter, but an intimate part of school polity. It will aid con- 
structively in the great enterprise of choosing and enriching 
occupations. In this connection the pupil will not be obliged 
to make final choice of curriculum or occupation at the outset. 
Early choices, whether of studies or vocation, are to be neither 
fatal nor valueless. 

No random choices. — It is plain from what has been said 
that in this wide range of studies and programs individual selec- 
tions are not to be random nor are they to be such as to make 
individual curricula fragmentary and superficial. There must 
be consistency and unity. Several principles, in addition to 
those that are implied in the preceding paragraphs, are at hand 
to guide in choices and thus to help toward consistency. 

1. Re- valuing of studies shows equality in educational 
values. — As we have seen, recent educational thought has been 
re-valuing studies. The tendency is to consider each study the 
equal of any other in essential training values, though different 
in content value, which is determined by the exigencies of indi- 
vidual situations. In the twentieth century high school each 
study will be made so broad, will show so many implications, so 
much history, so much culture material, so much practical value, 
that it will be on a par with any other study-agent as a medium 
for developing essential power. It will appeal both for its fit- 
ness as a means of preparing for some special calling, and for its 
cultural value, its intellectual value, and its stimulus to achieve- 
ment. This is true of individual studies. It is more significant 
in study-groups. We are to reason and organize by groups. 
We may even go further in speaking of equalities in training- 



374 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

values and say that no study-group has a monopoly of training- 
value in any one direction. Every natural group of subjects 
constitutes an essential element in the development of any 
power. No power is simple ; it is complex, many-sided. Lan- 
guage work is as essential for developing observation power as 
is science. In the development of language power the classics 
are not supreme, but ancillary and subordinate. 8 Mathematics 
and science are quite as important in developing imagination as 
are literature and history. In cultivating esthetic feeling more 
than fine pictures and architecture and music and landscape 
gardening are essential. The finest artistic sense, after all, 
comes from giving to everything in school organization, pro- 
gram, and method, and to everything in school environment, or- 
der, symmetry, and harmony of adjustment, — in bringing out 
in everything its own intrinsic fitness and adaptation. 9 

2. Limitations in training-value of studies. — This prin- 
ciple is closely related to another: — Power gained through 
training in one subject does not spread in other directions except 
in a very general way. 10 The two principles are essentially one, 

8 The so-called disciplinary power of the classics can no longer be a 
shibboleth. Besides, that is not the end of classical study at the best. 
We get out of subjects what has been put into them, and we get their 
value only when we bring them close to the personality of pupils. 
Latin was once the only study in which, to any extent, nations and indi- 
viduals had put their best thought. Other subjects were incidental or 
had suffered long lapses. Since that period other subjects have received 
the best the classics contributed and have added to this from spontaneous 
development in the special fields in which they apply. Hence other 
culture-disciplinary subjects have arisen. They are such because of the 
thought, effort, and system put into them. Any one may well be 
enthusiastic over his subject and make it a real culture subject. 
President Eliot was not fanciful when he said that manual training 
offered as much discipline as the classics. His view of the subject was 
a broad one. In fact, if we take up any of the subjects that have come, 
whether lightly or heavily, into the program, and look beyond the 
formal side and the bare facts that it involves in its narrowest aspect, — 
if we see its human relations, its history, its place in history, its correla- 
tions, in a word its cultural relations, — then its place in a curriculum, 
whether we look at it from the point of view of information, or from 
that of culture and training, will take on new force and meaning. 

9 Emphasis in this discussion is on the group. What is true of the 
group is more impressively true of individual studies. They cannot 
support their traditional claims to extravagant training value in certain 
directions. Note here the tendency to question the validity of algebra 
and geometry in some curricula (those for girls), and elsewhere. 

i° It is generally stated in another form : — Special training does not 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 375 

only they approach the truth from different directions and so 
present different sides of it. The principle is self-evident now, 
but the educational world thought the reverse for a long time, 
because educational experience was narrow and experimental 
psychology had not come. 

Two corollaries follow from this principle or double prin- 
ciple: 1. Training, to be effective, must be many-sided. 2. 
A person is not a real or trustworthy expert who knows no 
other line of work or thought but his own, who has not wide 
correlated knowledge. Over-specialization defeats its own end. 

3. The individual the unit. — A third principle is coming 
into emphasis : — Not the mass or the class, but the individual is 
the real unit. The individual is the final reservoir of strength, 
and it is his interest that must be determined and met, if the 
native strength of a community is to be realized. Mass teach- 
ing is wasteful, because it produces so many dwarfs. 

Individual adjustment the key. — Individual adjustment, 
adjustment to individuals and individual situations, is thus to 
be the key to the organization of curricula, and the same key 
will apply to method, which will be considered farther on. 
This is the real meaning of election and its successors, educa- 
tional guidance and vocational guidance, which are the media 
through which the individual needs of the adolescent are to be 
satisfied. This principle is supported by the other principles of 
secondary education that guide and define it. Adjustment is 
not a simple matter. Mere likes and dislikes may be only sur- 
face matters or imaginings. Any study may be made to appeal 
to the normal adolescent. It depends upon finding the point 
of contact, which in turn depends upon our knowledge of the 
adolescent and our method of presenting the subject. 11 To 
make a pupil strong we do not need a multitude of subjects, 

give general ability. Stated in this way it is liable to misinterpreta- 
tion, because there are so many seemingly contradictory facts. In- 
terpreted in an extreme way, as has sometimes been done, it is essen- 
tially untrue. The principle represents an historical fact. It is clearer 
and more impressive historically than pedagogically. 

11 If, after all, there is found to be a persistent antagonism to a sub- 
ject it simply means that the nascent period for awakening an interest 
has been passed, or has not yet been reached. Perhaps some blunder, 
some poor teaching in the initial presentation of the subject, has 
closed the door, or made it very difficult to open it. 



37 6 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

but close association with great departments of knowledge and 
work. In fact multitude would defeat our purpose. 

Broadening of choice. — With the increase of subjects and 
curricula wide choices are open. At the present time the prin- 
ciple of choice is generously applied between curricula, but 
more sparingly allowed within curricula, sometimes not at all. 
It is rather common to specify groups of allied subjects from 
which choice may be made. The advance is to be in the direc- 
tion of wider and wiser choices within curricula, so as to secure 
better adjustments. 

Reform in terminology. — The development of studies and 
curricula will be accompanied by a revision of terminology, 
making it more exact and scientific. Requirements and regula- 
tions will thus be stated more uniformly, and plans and reports 
will be more easily interpreted. At present, as already shown, 
units of work take the place of fixed courses, but a glance at 
current curricula 12 shows that there is no uniform mode of 
naming these units. Sometimes they are spoken of as hours, 
sometimes as points, sometimes as credits, sometimes as units. 
It is, however, fairly easy to make out that on the average re- 
quirements for graduation are sixteen courses, each course rep- 
resenting five prepared exercises each week for thirty-six weeks, 
i.e., sixteen units of work. It is neither necessary nor desir- 
able that the quantity should be specifically the same in all 
schools or in all localities, but it is desirable that when talking 
or writing on these matters we should use the same terms and 
that the terms should have a uniform value. 13 

While election and the unit idea of measuring results and 
qualifications have served the cause of individual adjustment, 
they have also undoubtedly had the effect of toning up the 
weaker courses, — strengthening their subject matter and the 
methods of teaching them. Reform in one part of a system in 
a way reforms all. 

The new century's inheritance and problems. — The de- 
velopment of high school problems and curricula in the nine- 

12 See appendix. 

131 Dr. Charles Hughes Johnston, of the University of Illinois, has 
done some pioneer work in this direction that ought to pave the way for 
reform. See page 304. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 377 

teenth century showed specifically and vividly the wonderful 
expansion of secondary school ideas. Growth, however, was 
feverish and without settled aims. The twentieth century will 
systematize the scattered results of the nineteenth century and 
apply secondary school principles more exactly. The develop- 
ment of the new century is evidently to be more scientific, more 
definite, more aimf ul. It is to be based on finer generalizations 
from a broader and more accurate knowledge of high school 
facts and relations, and a more scientific knowledge of the 
characteristics of high school pupils. 

APPENDIX 
TYPICAL HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULA AND PROGRAMS. 

Basis of choice. — The aim in this appendix is (1) to select current 
curricula that represent types on which school thought is converging; 
(2) to present curricula that are specially notable, or distinctive and 
suggestive, but still show the fundamental elements of the average 
progressive school of to-day. These curricula show the culmination of 
nineteenth century movements and suggest certain prophecies for the fu- 
ture. The curricula of many other schools equally interesting might 
have been selected from the large number received from all parts of 
the country. The main idea is to get at types rather than individuals, 
averages rather than special adaptations to local conditions. 

I. Successors of the old classical curriculum. — The classical cur- 
ricula, the successors to the secondary curricula from which all modern 
curricula are descended, will naturally be the first to be noted. 

(a) An Eastern Classical High School, — exclusively a college prepar- 
atory school, offering the standard classical curriculum approved by 
leading colleges and universities. The curriculum is arranged for six 
years, thus showing its relation to the old European Grammar Schools 
that took the boy at nine and started him early in Latin, or rather 
Latin grammar. It is also arranged for four years for those who have 
covered the two preliminary years in the elementary school. 

A Six-Year Curriculum 

Periods Periods 

First Year (Class VI.). per Week. Second Year (Class V.). per Week. 

English 5 or 6 English 5 or 6 

Latin 5 Latin 5 

Arithmetic and * Geom- Arithmetic and Geom- 
etry 5 etry 5 

History 2 or 3 History 2 or 3 

Geography 2 Geography 2 

Physiology 2 Elementary Science ... 2 



378 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



Periods 
First Year ( Class VI.). p er Week. 

Physical Training 2 

Choral Practice None or i 

24 or 25 

Periods 
Third Year {Class IV.). per Week. 

English 4 

Latin 5 

French 4 

Mathematics 4 

History 3 or 4 

Elementary Science ... 1 or 2 

Physical Training 2 

Choral Practice None or 1 



Periods 
Second Year (Class V.) .per Week. 

Physical Training 2 

Choral Practice None or 1 



24 or 25 

Periods 
Fourth Year ( Class III. ). per 
Week. 

English 3 or 4 

Latin 4 or 5 

French 3 

Greek or German 5 

Mathematics 3 or 4 

History 2 or 3 

Physical Training .... 2 
Choral Practice None or 1 



24 or 25 

Periods 
Fifth Year ( Class II. ). per Week. 

English 3 

Latin 4 or 5 

French 3 

Greek or German 5 

Mathematics 3 or 4 

History : 3 

Physical Training 2 

Choral Practice None or 1 



24 or 25 

Periods 
Sixth Year (Class I.), per Week. 

English 4 

Latin 5 

Greek or German .... 5 

Mathematics 4 

Physics 5 

Physical Training 2 



24 or 25 



25 



Four- Year Curriculum 



Periods 
First Year (Class IV.). per Week. 

English 4 or 5 

Latin 6 or 7 

French 4 

Mathematics 4 

History 3 or 4 

Physical Training 2 

Choral Practice None or 1 



2 5 
Periods 
Third Year (Class II.) . per Week. 

English 3 

Latin 5 

French 3 

Greek or German 5 



Periods 
Second Year (Class 1 1 1.). per Week 

English 3 

Latin 5 or 6 

French 3 

Greek or German 5 

Mathematics 3 or 4 

History 2 or 3 

Physical Training 2 

Choral Practice None or 1 

25 
Periods 
Fourth Year (Class I.), per Week. 

English 4 

Latin 5 

Greek or German 5 

Mathematics 4 



STUDIES AND CURRICULA 



379 



Periods 
Third Year ( Class II. ) . per Week. 

Mathematics 3 or 4 

History 3 

Physical Training 2 

Choral Practice None or 1 



Periods 
Fourth Year {Class I.), per Week. 

Physics 5 

Physical Training 2 



25 



25 



(b) Another Eastern High School has a double classical curriculum, 
one of four years, and the other of five years (evidently for those 
who need wider and longer preparation for college work). Still 
another high school from the same section offers a five-year and a four- 
year curriculum, and a second five-year curriculum for those who wish 
to take a longer time for the work of the four-year curriculum. 

(c) A Western High School offers an enterprising curriculum of 
four years and a two-year addition that prepares for advanced work 
in the university or gives special opportunities for extended training 
for those who cannot undertake college work. The curriculum is as 
follows : 



Classical Curriculum 



B9^ 



English 

Latin 

Greek History 

Physical Geography* 

Chorus, Drawing, Music 

(2), o 



Bll 



A9 



BIO 



A 10 



1 Continue Bo 

2 Continue Bo. 

3 Roman History 

4 Continue Bq 
.5 Continue B9 

1 English 

2 Algebra 

3 Latin 

4 Greek 

5 Chorus (2), Drawing 
(3), Expression (2), 
Music (2), Debating 
(2) o 

1 Continue Bio 

2 Continue Bio 

3 Continue Bio 

4 Continue Bio 

5 Continue Bio o 



1 English Bll, All, or B12 

2 Geometry 

3 Latin 

4 Greek 

5 Chorus (2), Drawing 
(5), Expression (2), De- 
bating (2), Music, Jour- 
nalism (2) o 



All 



B12^ 



Geometry 
Latin 
Greek 

Physics, Household 
Physics, Chemistry or 
Domestic Chemistry 
(B12) 

Expression or Debating 
required if not taken be- 
fore 



'1 Latin 

2 Greek 

3 Physics, Household 
Physics, Chemistry or 
Domestic Chemistry 
(A12) 

4 American History 

5 Expression, Debating, 
Journalism (2) o 



38o 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



B13 
and 
A 13 



A 12 4 



i English 

2 Latin 

3 Greek 

4 Civics 

5 Expression or Debating 
(2) if not taken before. 



English Composition, 
History of England, 
French, Spanish, German, 
Music, Latin (Cicero de 
Senectute, Pliny, Livy, 
Plautus), Greek (Plato's 
Apology and Crito, Ho- 
mer's Odyssey), Greek and 
Latin Composition, Solid 
Geometry, Trigonometry, 
Analytics, Logic, Physics 
(Mechanics and Heat), 
Chemistry (Qualita- 
tive Analysis, Lectures on 
General Chemistry), Bot- 
any, Zoology, Physical 
.Culture, Playground. 



B14 
and 
A 14 



English Literature, His- 
tory of Europe since 1815, 
Oriental History, Econom- 
ics, Psychology, French, 
Spanish, German, Latin 
(Horace, Tacitus), Greek 
(Euripides), Greek and 
Latin Composition, Higher 
Algebra, Calculus, Phys- 
ics (Electricity and Mag- 
netism, Sound, Light), 
Chemistry (Quantitative 
Analysis), General Inor- 
ganic, General Organic, 
Organic Laboratory, Agri- 
cultural Chemistry, As- 
tronomy, Geology, Phys- 
ical Culture. 



o Subjects so marked may be omitted. 

1. There are five recitations a week in each subject except in those 
otherwise designated. 

2. Sixteen units of work are required for a diploma. One unit rep- 
resents a year of work in a subject taken five times a week. 

3. Physical Culture two periods each week is required in every grade 
in addition to the sixteen units mentioned above. Military drill is the 
form of physical culture required of boys of the tenth grade. 

4. Pupils from other accredited schools will be credited with all work 
completed. 

2. General curricula: — 
(a) An Eastern High School. 



Program of Studies 
First Year 



*English I 

*Latin I, or German I, or French I 

*Mathematics I, Algebra 

*Science I, Biology, including Botany, Zoology and Phys- 
iology 

*Drawing I 



J* 




.38 


oi 






8 


u u 




<u <u 


O 


PWCU 


Ck 


5 


10 


5 


10 


5 


10 


5 


10 


2 


2 



STUDIES AND CURRICULA 381 



•L .5 

PhPh Ph 

♦Music I 1 1 

^Physical Training I 2 2 

♦tEnglish VI, Elocution I 1 1 

tNoxE. — A continuation of the course in Elocution is also offered 

through the second, third and fourth years. When so taken add one 
point per year. 

Second Year 

*English II 3 6 

*Latin II, German II, or French II j, 5 10 

♦Mathematics II, Plane Geometry 4 8 

^History I (Greece and Rome) 3 6 

Greek I 5 10 

Italian I 5 10 

Spanish I 5 10 

tScience II, Chemistry 5 10 

♦Drawing II 2 2 

*Music II 1 1 

♦Physical Training II 2 2 

♦*Domestic Science (for girls) 4 4 

Physiography 4 8 

fNoxE. — Science II, Chemistry, may also be taken in the fourth year. 
♦*Note. — In the course offered to girls, Sewing — 4 periods per week, 
is an elective. 

Third Year 

♦English III 3 6 

*Latin III, German III, or French III 5 10 

*History II (England) 2 4 

Science III, Physics 5 10 

tMathematics III, Algebra, Review and Advance 2 4 

tMathematics IV, Plane Geometry, Review and Advance 2 4 

Greek II 4 8 

Italian II 4 8 

Spanish II 4 8 

Stenography and Typewriting I 4 4 

Bookkeeping I 3 3 

Economics I 3 6 

tScience IV, Botany, Advance 4 8 

tScience V, Zoology, Advance 4 8 

Music III 1 1 

Drawing III 1 1 

♦Physical Training 2 2 

tNoTE. — Either course in Mathematics, Science IV, Botany, Advance, 
and Science V, Zoology, Advance, may also be taken in the fourth year. 

Note. — In the course offered to girls, Cooking, 4 periods per week, and 
Millinery, 3 periods per week, are electives. 



382 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Fourth Year 



.3 8 

*d > to 

.2 * | 

<U 1) o 

P-tdl CL, 



*English IV 3 6 

Latin IV, German IV, or French IV 4 8 

Greek III 4 8 

Italian III 4 8 

Spanish III 4 8 

Latin V, Additional and Supplementary Courses 3 6 

Greek IV, Additional and Supplementary Courses .... 3 6 

English V, Additional and Supplementary Courses ... 3 6 

Science VI, Physiography 4 8 

*History III, American History and Civics, Related Eng- 
lish History 4 8 

Mathematics V, Advanced Mathematics 4 8 

Stenography and Typewriting II 3 3 

**Domestic Science I 3 6 

Commercial Law and Commercial Geography 3 6 

History IV (Mediaeval and Modern) 3 6 

Music IV 1 1 

Drawing IV 1 1 

*Physical Training IV 2 2 

**Note. — In the course offered to girls, Dressmaking, 4 periods per 
week, is an elective. 

" Students following this program shall present for graduation the 
satisfactory completion of the required work in subjects starred above 
and shall be given credit for the number of points indicated upon the 
satisfactory completion of each subject. The requirement for gradua- 
tion shall be the satisfactory completion of work aggregating 150 
points and the passing of such examinations as shall be set." 

(c) A High School in the West: — 

"Note — No one shall be graduated who has not satisfactorily com- 
pleted all the work required in one of the four lines of work: the 
Academic, including the Commercial ; the Manual Training ; the Techni- 
cal; or that of the School of Trades. 

" In any curriculum except the Technical or Trade sixteen units are 
required for graduation and at least twelve of these units must be 
earned in academic subjects. The first two years' work in Drawing, 
one of free-hand and one of mechanical, two periods per week each 
year, is required for graduation and is equivalent to a half unit. The 
other three and one-half units may be made by work in elective academic 
subjects or in unprepared work as defined below: 

"Two periods of work in unprepared subjects are equivalent to one 
period in prepared work. Work in the following subjects is considered 
unprepared work: Manual Training, Drawing, Typewriting, Laboratory 
Work." 



STUDIES AND CURRICULA 



383 



Academic Curriculum 



Grade 
IX 


Term 
1 


Prescribed Work 

English *5 

Algebra 5 

f Ancient History. . . .4 
Drawing 2 


Electives 

ELECT ONE 

Latin 5 1 

German 5 

Elementary Science 4 


2 


English 5 

Algebra 5 

f Ancient History. . . .4 
Drawing 2 


Elementary Science (First 
Term), 4; Arithmetic 
(Second Term) 5 

Manual Training 10 


x 


1 


English 5 

Plane Geometry 5 

Drawing 2 


ELECT TWO 

Latin 5 

German 5 

French 5 

Greek 5 




2 


English 5 

Plane Geometry 5 

Drawing 2 


English History 4 

Bookkeeping 5 

Botany 4 

Typewriting 5 

Manual Training 10 


XI 


1 


$ Physics 5 


ELECT THREE 

English 5 

Latin 5 

German 5 

French 5 

Greek 5 

Spanish 5 

Mediaeval and Modern His- 
tory 5 

Zoology and Physiology 5 

Algebra (First Term), .... 5 
Solid Geometry (Second 
Term), 4; or plane Ge- 
ometry (Second Term). 5 
Bookkeeping (First Term) ; 
Banking and Office Prac- 
tice (Second Term) 5 

Stenography 5 

Typewriting 5 

Drawing, Optional 2 

Manual Training 10 


1 


2 


$ Physics 5 



* The figure after a subject denotes the number of periods given to 
that subject weekly; an academic subject taken four or five hours per 
week for one year is credited as one unit toward graduation. 



3§4 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



Grade 



XII 



Term 



Prescribed Work 



English 
$ Chemistry 



English 

% Chemistry 



Electives 

ELECT THREE 

Latin 5 

German 5 

French 5 

Greek 5 

Spanish 5 

American History and Civics 5 

Chemistry 5 

Psychology and Economics.. 5 

Geology and Astronomy 5 

Trigonometry (First Term) 4 
Advanced Algebra or Analy- 
tical Geometry (Second 

Term) 4 

Commercial Law (First 
Term) ; and Commercial 

Geography (2d Term) 5 

Stenography 5 

Typewriting 5 

Manual Training 10 



3. Commercial curricula: — 

(a) A High School of Commerce in a large New England city. 

" Purpose. — The purpose of the High School of Commerce is to 
give a special training that will help its graduates to find employment 
in the business world, and, also, to give a general training that will 
aid these graduates to earn promotion to the more responsible business 
positions and equip them for the duties of citizenship. Special atten- 
tion is given to the development of habits of punctuality, industry, self- 
reliance, and trustworthiness, as these qualities are absolutely essential 
to the highest success in the business world. 

" The curriculum has not been planned to meet the requirements for 
admission to college, but the school does prepare young women to enter 
the Secretarial School of Simmons College and young men to enter 
the School of Commerce, Accounts, and Finance of New York Uni- 
versity and the Wharton School of Finance of the University of 
Pennsylvania. This makes it possible for any graduate of the school, 
if he so desires, to secure a college education." 

First Year 



First Semester 

English 5 

Science 5 

Penmanship and \ K 

Commercial Arithmetic ) 5 

Local History, Government, ) 
and Industries ) 
Physical Training 2 



Second Semester 

English 5 

Science 5 

Penmanship and ) 

Commercial Arithmetic ) *> 

Bookkeeping 5 

Physical Training 2 



Total 



,22 



Total 22 



STUDIES AND CURRICULA 



385 



Second Year 



First Semester 

English 5 

General History 5 

Bookkeeping 5 

Commercial Geography 5 

Physical Training 2 



Total 22 



Second Semester 

English 5 

General History 5 

Bookkeeping and [ 

Office Practice J •> 

Commercial Geography 5 

Physical Training 2 



Total 



,22 



Third Year 



First Semester 

English 5 

American History 5 

Optionals 10 

Physical Training 2 



Total 



,22 



Second Semester 

English 5 

Civil Government 5 

Optionals 10 

Physical Training 2 

Total 22 



Fourth Year 



First Semester 

English S 

Political Economy 5 

Optionals 10 



Total 



,20 



Second Semester 

English g 

Commercial Law 5 

Accounting and 1 

Office Methods ) 5 

Optionals 10 



Total 



.25 



Optionals for Third and Fourth Years 

Stenography 5 Geometry 5 

Typewriting 5 Physics 5 

Commercial History 1 - Chemistry 5 

and Finance ) 5 Physiology and Hygiene 5 

Drawing 5 French 5 

Algebra 5 German 5 

The figure after the name of each subject indicates the number 
of recitations per week in the subject. 

(b) Another New England city offers a broader curriculum with 
a large number of electives, though with rather limited opportunity to 
apply the elective principle. Some of the subjects that are elective in 
(a) are required in this curriculum. 

(c) A city in the Pacific Section offers a curriculum which is entirely 
elective and so gives wide opportunity for individual adjustment. See 
also the program of studies under 8. 

4. Vocational curricula: — 

(a) A High School in an Eastern city. 



386 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



Boys 



First Year 

Joinery i}A year) 6 

Sheet Metal ( l / 2 year) 4 

Turning and Pattern Making, 

and Foundry 10 

Drawing 5 

Practical Mathematics 5 

English 4 

Second Year 

Forge Shop {y 2 year) 6 

Sheet Metal ( l / 2 year) 4 

Machine Shop 10 

Drawing 5 

Practical Mathematics 5 

English 4 

Natural Science 3 



Third Year 

Machine Shop (y 2 year) 10 

Any Shop {y 2 year) 10 

Drawing 4 

Practical Mathematics 5 

English 4 

Physics or Chemistry 5 

Fourth Year 

Any Shop { x / 2 year) 10 

Drafting {]/ 2 year) 4 

Any Shop or Drafting 20 

Practical Mathematics 5 

English 3 

U. S. History and Civics ( l / 2 
year) 5 



Note : — The above course is intended for students who wish to fit 
themselves for a definite vocation. 



Girls 



First Year 

English 4 

Natural Science 5 

Cooking and Sewing 6 

Applied Art 4 

Select One: 

German or French 5 

Arithmetic of Algebra 5 

Second Year 

English 4 

Chemistry of Foods and Cook- 
ing 6 

Dressmaking 4 

Designing 4 

Select One: 

German or French 5 

Physics 5 

History 5 



Third Year 

English ;••;••• 4 

Hygiene and Home Sanitation. 5 

Millinery 6 

Invalid Cooking 4 

Select One: 

Applied Art 4 

German or French 5 

Chemistry 5 

Fourth Year 

English 4 

Art History 5 

Select three: 

Biology 5 

German or French 5 

U. S. History and Civics 5 

Dressmaking 6 

Millinery 6 

Applied Art 6 

Any Household Art or Science. 6 
Any subject of General Course 5 

(b) The following curriculum of a Manual Training High School 
in a Middle West city shows the possibilities of curriculum-making in 
various vocational directions by a skilful coordination of required and 
elective work under educational guidance. Studies in capital letters 
are prescribed and are to be taken in the order given. Thirty-one 
credits are required for graduation, a credit standing for five class 
exercises of prepared work per week for a half year. 



STUDIES AND CURRICULA 



387 



First Year 


English I 


English II 


Algebra I 


Algebra II 


Latin I 


Latin II 


German I 


German II 


Am. History la 


Am. History 




Ha* 


History I 


History II 


(Grecian) 


(Roman) 


Physical 


Physical 


Training I 


Training II* 


Woodworking I 


Woodworking 

II 
(Wood 


(Bench Work) 




Turning) 


Freehand 


Freehand 


Drawing Is 


Drawing lis 


(For Shop 




Pupils) 




Freehand 


Freehand 


Drawing I 


Drawing 11 


Sewing I 


Sewing II* 


Music 


Music 



English III 


English IV 


Plane Ge- 


Plane Geom. II 


ometry I 




Latin III 


Latin IV 


German III 


German IV 


Civics 




History III 


History IV* 


(Mediaeval) 


(Modern) 


Botany I 


Botany II* 


Forging I 


Forging II 


Mechanical 


Mechanical 


Drawing I 


Drawing II 


Freehand 


Freehand 


Drawing III 


Drawing IV* 


Cooking I 


Cooking II* 


Sewing III 


Sewing IV* 


Commercial 


Bookkeeping I 


Arithmetic 




Stenography I 


Stenography II 




(Including 




Typewriting) 



Third Year 



Fourth Year 



English V 

Algebra III* 

Latin V 
German V 
History V 

(English) 
Physiography I 

Physics I 

Pattern- 
Making I 

(Including 

Foundry) 

Mechanical 
Drawing III 

Freehand 

Drawing V 

Cooking III 

Sewing V 

Bookkeeping II 

Stenography III 

(Including 
Typewriting) 



English VI 
Business Comp. 
Arithmetic 
Solid Geometry 
Latin VI 
German VI 
History VI* 

(English) 
Physiography 

II* 
Physics II* 
Pattern- 
Making II 
(Including 

Foundry) 
Mechanical 

Drawing IV 
Freehand 

Drawing VI 
Cooking IV 

Bookkeeping 

III 
Stenography 

IV* 
(Including 
Typewriting) 



Composition 

VII* 
Literature VII 
Trigonometry 
Latin VII 
German VII 
History VII 

(American) 
Applied 

Electricity 
Chemistry I 
Machine- 
Fitting I 
Mechanical 

Drawing V 
or 
Architectural 

Drawing Va 
Freehand 

Drawing VII 

Physiology 
Bookkeeping 

IV* 
Business Law 
Stenography V 



Composition 

VIII 
Literature VIII 
Higher Algebra 
Latin VIII* 
German VIII* 
History VIII* 
(American) 



Chemistry II* 
Machine- 
Fitting II* 
Mechanical 
Drawing VI* 
or 
Architectural 

Drawing Via* 
Freehand 

Drawing VIII 
Hygiene and 
Home Nursing 



388 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

(c) Another Middle West city offers elaborate curricula, with re- 
quired work and optionals, as follows: — A two-year teachers' pre- 
paratory curriculum ; a four-year commercial curriculum ; a four-year 
office preparatory curriculum; a four-year technical curriculum, for 
boys; a four-year technical curriculum, for girls; a four-year general 
trades curriculum; a four-year "arts" curriculum; a four-year archi- 
tectural curriculum; four-year curricula in household arts, household 
science, and art; two-year curricula in the following, — accounting, 
stenography, mechanical drawing, design, pattern-making, machine shop, 
carpentry, electricity, household arts, printing, horticulture. 

(d) The most interesting vocational school discovered is found in 
a modest Massachusetts city, — interesting because of the suggestive 
and skilful manner in which it enforces fundamental principles. In 
the first place it is interesting to find that educational guidance steadies 
and fortifies the new high school pupil by prescribing that in all voca- 
tional curricula, except the commercial (as well as -in other high school 
curricula), the normal number of class-room subjects in the first year 
shall be three. As to vocational curricula the school authorities say : — 

" While the curricula are so planned that in four years a student 
devotes as much time to work in English, history, civics, mathematics, 
and related science as would be given to this work in most high schools, 
it does not fit for college, but is of such a nature that it applies di- 
rectly to the industry for which the curriculum is preparing. Thus 
the student can obtain the theory of his special line of work together 
with a general training which will enable him to go as far as his ability 
will allow in the industry he chooses. What he gains in the school 
will also tend to make him a more desirable citizen. 

" The school day for the vocational curricula is from 8:30 to 3 : 15 with 
30 minutes for lunch. Half of the day is devoted to shop work and 
the other half to the related academic or book work mentioned above. 
Only boys and girls who are willing to work hard are advised to elect 
these curricula. Pupils are advanced individually as rapidly as they 
are capable of promotion and those who come with excellent grammar 
school records will find large openings with good prospects in the in- 
dustries for which the curricula train. 

" When a student elects a curriculum, the related academic work, to 
which one-half of the time is devoted, is prescribed and must be fol- 
lowed unless a special request is made by the parents that a student 
be allowed to give all, or nearly all, of his time to shop work. This is 
allowed when students can remain in the school for only a year or two. 
In all cases, however, some mechanical drawing and the full course in 
mathematics are required. With the above exception, all boys have 
four years of English, history, civics, economics, mathematics, drawing 
and related science." 

Mathematics, English, science, and drawing are not taught ab- 
stractly, but are correlated with the different curricula in the technical 
school. Each of these studies has a phase for each curriculum, so 
that the study is made concrete and has the clearness incident to its 



STUDIES AND CURRICULA 389 

special applications to the special object that the pupil is pursuing, 
whether machine work, electricity, pattern-making, or printing. 

The shop work applicable to each curriculum is laid out with ad- 
mirable appreciation of the needs of the pupils electing these different 
curricula. 

The same general plan is followed for the household-science-and-art 
curricula for girls. 

(e) Equally interesting is the fine arts curriculum offered in the 
same school. A few quotations from a descriptive booklet will show 
its purposes and aims. 

" Fortunate is the pupil, who, at the age of thirteen of fourteen, has 
a peculiar natural ability for any one special line of work. If the 
future offers adequate financial returns for the effort expended in adult 
life in this profession or trade, every encouragement should be given 
the student to further his education in the specialty in which he prom- 
ises to succeed. 

" Those educators who have made it their business to study the 
education of the past and of the present are agreed that the high school 
is the place for the beginning of such specialization. There are some 
things which the pupil must learn in his teens, or he will never learn 
them. Every adult knows there are processes that now he can never 
learn to do well; he has passed the time in life when he can acquire 
certain skill, especially in using his hands. 

" A study of the biographies of the notable artists and craftsmen 
reveals the fact that these men and women showed an inclination to 
work in their art or craft by the time they were twelve years of age. 
History repeats itself in the case of every boy or girl, who, at 
the time of entrance into the high school, displays more interest, pleas- 
ure, and ability in drawing than in the other studies. It is for pupils 
who have this love and natural ability for art work that the Fine Arts 
curriculum has been established in the Technical High School. It may 
be noted, that so far as the school authorities know, it was the first 
Fine Arts curriculum to be established in a high school. There are 
now several similar curricula in other city high schools throughout the 
country. 

" The Fine Arts curriculum includes work in the arts, and such gen- 
eral education as is related to the arts. French, the language of the art 
world; geometry dealing with areas and shapes; history of the great 
art periods of the past; English as an art of expression in written and 
spoken forms; science dealing with the understanding of light and 
color, enamels, dyes, paints, etc.; biology relating to life structures; 
music as the most emotional of the arts; modelling in clay including 
designing, glazing and firing; design and applied art in copper, brass, 
silver, leather and textiles ; freehand drawing in pencil, crayons, water 
colors and oil paints; out-door sketching; craftswork in wood, includ- 
ing the making of a studio easel, palette and paint box; a four years' 
course of stereopticon lectures in art appreciation ; visits to galleries and 
art museums; and for general service in life, shop work or household 



390 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

economics, civics, and if desired, German; all these make for the edu- 
cation of the future arts and crafts worker. 

" For what life work does this curriculum prepare the students? The 
following list will be suggestive: 

Architecture Fashion Plate Making 

Interior Decoration Sign Painting 

Advertising Design Illustrating 

Textile and Pottery Design Lithography 

Engraving Painting 

Photo-engraving Sculpture 

The Teaching of Drawing, Modelling, and Painting. 

"As a preparation for these trades and professions, which generally 
offer liberal financial returns for the skilled artisan, and in which the 
supply of available labor does not equal the demand, this is the best 
curriculum for the student to take. Also, all students contemplating 
future study in any art or design school should begin such study in 
the high school Fine Arts curriculum." 

It is particularly encouraging to find such progressive ideas combined 
with such sound principles of teaching as are evident in the last two 
examples. 

(f) Agricultural High Schools. 

Minnesota, the first State to establish this type of high school, sug- 
gests several standard curricula from which different communities may 
choose as best suits their individual conditions. The following will 
fairly illustrate the type. 

Four- Year Curriculum in Agriculture 

First Year 

Botany, one-half year; eight periods per week, including laboratory. 

Zoology, one-half year. 

Algebra, five periods. 

English, five periods. 

Manual training, ten periods per week. 

Second Year 

Horticulture, eight periods per week, including laboratory. 
Plane geometry, five periods. 
English, five periods. 
Manual training, ten periods. 

Third Year 

Soils and farm crops, eight periods per week, including laboratory. 

English, five periods. 

Physics, eight periods per week, including laboratory. 

Farm mechanics and forge work, seven periods per week. 



STUDIES AND CURRICULA 391 

Fourth Year 
Animal husbandry, including dairying, eight periods per week. 
English, five periods. 

Chemistry, eight periods per week, including laboratory. 
Farm management. 
Rural problems. 

Farm sanitation, seven periods per week. 
Civics. 

Note.— This curriculum pre-supposes a course in general agriculture 
in the eighth grade, two periods per week, during the year. 

"Animal husbandry is placed in the last year, as the pupils of this 
vicinity know more of the other subjects and are more interested in 
the garden. 

" It is advisable to have students as mature as possible before taking 
up the breeding and feeding of farm animals, as it is a hard subject 
to present to immature students." 

Agricultural curricula have become very common. Some of the 
largest city high schools include an agricultural curriculum in their 
program. It is a most legitimate part of the program of studies of 
any community. Not every high school that offers an agricultural cur- 
riculum, however, could be called an agricultural high school, which 
may be briefly described as one that serves a rural community and has 
for its center of interest its agricultural curriculum, though other cur- 
ricula appear side by side with it in order to meet the varied interests 
of the community. 

To show how far the influence of agricultural education extends and 
how agriculture demands and appreciates thorough education to realize 
its possibilities the following outline will be interesting: — 

Winter Curriculum of an Agricultural High School 

GENERAL STATEMENT 

"The winter curricula have been planned to meet the needs of the 
young men and women on the farms or in town who can not avail 
themselves of the full high school course. Any one over fifteen years 
of age may enroll, but more mature students, such as those actually 
engaged in farm and home work, are desired. The regular work will 
begin at 10:15 each day and close at 2:30. Students will be given texts 
in most subjects and lessons assigned for home study, as all the time 
in school will be devoted to recitations, lectures and laboratory experi- 
ments. The general period work will be required of all. This con- 
sists of Palmer business writing, commercial spelling, chorus, rhetoricals 
and debate. Special classes will be given if there is sufficient demand 
for them. Students from the associated schools will be admitted free, 
but districts outside the association will be charged a fee of $2.50 
per month for each pupil attending. The district pays for this, not 
the pupil. The regular high school faculty will have charge of the 
courses, so that high grade instruction is assured. Certificates will be 



392 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



given for work finished at the end of each year, and those completing 
the four-year winter curriculum will be graduated with a diploma. 
With evidence of satisfactory experience on the farm, this diploma 
will be accepted for two years' advanced standing in the industrial cur- 
riculum of the high school. Farmers and their wives who can not be 
present for the entire work are especially invited to attend the lectures 
on such subjects as they are interested in. 



First Year — 
English, 5 
Woodwork, 5 
Farm crops, 5 
Practical Arith., 5 
Plain cooking, 10 
Poultry, 5 
Writing and spell 

ing, 5 



First Division 

Second Year — 
English, 5 
Woodwork, 5 
Animal husban- 
„ dry, 5 

Farm accounts, 5 
Home accounts, 5 
Domestic science, 10 
Commercial geog- 
raphy, 5 



Second Division 



Third Year — 

English, s 

Iron work, 5 

Soils and fertiliza- 
tion, 5 

Farm manage- 
ment, 5 

Drainage, 5 

Sewing, 10 

Bookkeeping, 5 

Business law, 5 



Fourth Year — 

English, 5 

Cement and build- 
ings, s 

Corn culture, 5 

Farm mechanics, 5 

Domestic art, 10 

Political econ- 
. om y» 5 

Civics, 5 



Business writing, spelling, rhetoricals and debate are required at 
the general period throughout the course. 

Notes on the Course 

" It will be noticed the curriculum is divided into two divisions for 
economy in handling the classes. The plan is to alternate the work of 
the first and second years, as well as that of the third and fourth 
years, offering half of the subjects of a division one year and the other 
half the next. The numerals indicate the equivalent of single periods 
per week. Each student working for credit should elect twenty units 
per week, as this is the basis required for graduation. The first two 
years of English are required of all students. The rest of the work is 
elective except the general period." 

5. The Township High School. — This is one of the most striking 
developments of secondary education in this country. 

It is illustrated by the Tozvnship High School of Illinois. It sup- 
plies elaborate curricula equal to the best of those that have been given 
in the early pages of this appendix. The program of the one at hand 
shows eleven curricula, one commercial, two in literature and arts, one 
leading to engineering, one to agriculture, one to work in general 
science, one to medicine, veterinary surgery and dentistry, one to lit- 
erary professions, and one to teaching, also one manual training and 
one domestic science curriculum. Two of these curricula must serve 
as samples here: — 



First Year. 



Literature and Arts 
(15% units required for graduation) 
Second Year. 



Required : 
English. 
Physiography. 
Algebra. 
Latin. 



Required : 
English. 

Greek and Roman History. 
Geometry. 
Latin. 



STUDIES AND CURRICULA 



393 



Third Year. 



Required : 

English. 

Modern Language. 

Physics. 
Elective : 

Latin. 

Medieval and Modern History 
or English History. 

Algebra III and Solid Geom- 



etry or Algebra III and 
Trigonometry. 

Commercial Geography. 

Industrial History and Eco- 
nomics. 

Sewing. 

Cooking. 

Manual Training. 

Botany or Zoology. 



Fourth Year. 



One Required : 

English Literature or Public 
Speaking or College Rhet- 
oric. 
Elective : 

Latin. 

Modern Language. 

Medieval and Modern History. 

English History. 

American History. 

Algebra III and Solid Geom- 
etry or Algebra III and 
Trigonometry or Trigonom- 
etry and Surveying. 

Botany. 



Zoology. 

Chemistry. 

Industrial History and Eco- 
nomics. 

Civics and Commercial Law. 

Sewing. 

Cooking. 

Manual Training. 

Advanced Physics. 

Astronomy. 

Roman Life. 

American Literature. 

One unit of music may be al- 
lowed. 



Required : 

English. 

Industrial Science. 
Manual Training. 

Required : 
English. 
Physics. 
Manual Training. 



Manual Training 
First Year. 

Elective : 
General Mathematics. 
Algebra. 

Second Year. 

Elective : 

Foreign Language. 

Greek and Roman History. 

Medieval and Modern History. 

Geometry.* 

General Mathematics. 



Third Year. 



Required : 

English. 

Manual Training. 

Chemistry. 
Elective : 

Industrial History and Eco- 
nomics. 

Medieval and Modern History. 



English History. 
Language. 

Algebra III and Solid Geom- 
etry. 
Arts and Crafts. 
Machine Designing. 
Architectural Designing. 



*If Algebra is selected, geometry is the first mathematical 
sequence allowed. 



394 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Fourth Year. 

Required: American Literature. 

Manual Training. Civics and Commercial Law. 

Elective: Algebra III and Solid Geome- 

English. ■ try. 

Electrical Construction. Trigonometry and Surveying. 

Foreign Language. Arts and Crafts. 

Public Speaking. Machine Designing. 

English History. Architectural Designing. 

American History. 

Quotations from Stanley Brown, Principal of the Joliet Township 
High School will be of interest 14 : — 

"The most distinctive feature (of the Township High School) is that 
the entire power to establish or disestablish, to bond, to build, to create 
the board, etc., etc., is lodged in the local community. So far as my 
information goes there is no other type of public educational institu- 
tion that receives absolutely no financial support from the state, and in 
consequence the township high school of Illinois is the most purely 
democratic institution known to the writer." 

"To most people unfamiliar with the township high school law of 
Illinois, the primary conception of such a school locates it in the heart 
of a rural community and thinks of it as applying only to rural com- 
munities, but its main application in Illinois has been found of greatest 
value in villages and towns whose location made it possible for them 
to act as the center of community life, even though their population was 
but a few hundred or a few thousand people." 

" There is no limit in either direction to the amount or character of 
work which may be done in a township high school, and so one may 
find on investigation that the courses of study vary from two years 
to six years and include both high school, normal school and college 
work. There seems to be no reason at present, if a community so elects, 
to prevent the successful completion of one or two years of work or- 
dinarily offered by the college or the normal school. Such advanced 
courses are now being given by some of the township high schools in 
Illinois and that with such success as to secure without examination or 
condition the same credit in college and university which similar courses 
would receive if the student had taken them in the college or uni- 
versity instead of the high school." 

" The township high school is a system by itself and is, in consequence, 
free from many of the disturbing factors incident to municipal control 
of schools. Neither the mayor of the city, the city council, the ward 
politician, nor any official of the municipality may interfere with the 
development of the township high school." 

" The records of the township high schools in Illinois show that both 
the tenure of office of the superintendent or principal of the school 
and that of the board of education controlling it are much longer than 

14 Extracts from his "Township High Schools of Illinois." 



STUDIES AND CURRICULA 395 

the tenure of office of either city superintendent or principal of city 
high school or city boards of education." 

" It is fairly certain that no other type of high school in any state of 
the union in either city or town has at its command sufficient funds to 
pay the superintendent, principal and teachers as well as do the best 
township high schools of Illinois." 

" It is not only possible but it is a well known fact that many of the 
township high schools are equipped with apparatus, libraries, museums, 
etc., etc., very much better than most of the small colleges and as well 
as some of the universities. When a school is able to expend eighteen 
thousand dollars for apparatus, etc., to equip laboratories, there need 
be no hesitation in arranging advanced courses in science." 

"The extent, amount and character of work done by the best town- 
ship high schools of Illinois give them a higher classification in the 
educational system than belongs to any other type of high school 
in any state. The work accomplished by technical institutions, pri- 
vately endowed and extending over six years beyond the elementary 
school course is not very different from that of the best township high 
schools in Illinois. In so far as the first two years' work ordinarily 
offered by the small college or the university is done by the township 
high school, in such particular it belongs to the collegiate classifica- 
tion." 

" The organization of the township high school has been a great boon 
to the elementary school, because the taxes which supported both sys- 
tems before the enactment of the township law are now used exclusively 
for the support of the elementary school. The township school de- 
pends on the township as a unit with all the corporate interests located 
therein to furnish the funds for its support, and in no case has the 
taxing limit for its support been reached." 

"The state gives no support and has absolutely no authority in the 
management of this school." 

" There are already eighty of these Township High Schools in Illinois, 
and the number is growing." 

"The Joliet Township High School, Joliet, Illinois, enrolls eighteen 
hundred students and includes day, afternoon, evening, and vacation 
schools. Eighty-five per cent, of all who complete the eighth grade in 
the city enter the high school ; sixty per cent, of those who enter the high 
school graduate from a four-year curriculum ; fifty per cent, of all who 
graduate enter some higher institution of learning. This institution, 
supported entirely by local taxation and managed entirely through local 
control, includes four years of high school work beyond the eighth 
grade, one year of State Normal School work with practice teaching 
for graduates of the school, and two years of college work for grad- 
uates of the school." 

"The institution is now ranked by the State University of Illinois 
as a Junior College, and its graduates recommended receive the same 
treatment as students coming from a college or university." 

The LaSalle-Peru Township High School already has a group of five 



396 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

buildings. Its Principal, Thomas J. McCormack, has this to say as 
to the distinguishing characteristics of such schools : — 

"They are much misunderstood, especially by the people in the 
East. Our state law enables the people of any congressional township 
(six miles by six miles square) to establish a township high school 
in addition to and above the regular school systems already established. 
It is mainly a device for doubling the taxation powers of our school 
systems. For example, our township high school board can tax the 
property of our entire township as much as the boards of the three 
individual cities composing the township can ^ tax the _ said property. 
If we had no township high school in our little tri-cities, each city 
would be compelled to support a high school with the same funds with 
which it is now supporting its grade schools ; and when you reflect 
that the grade schools have barely enough money to operate themselves 
decently by modern methods, you will understand the main advantage 
of the township High School. It is to be remembered furthermore 
that township high schools are not limited to the country, but in fact 
flourish in their greatest strength in the medium sized cities. The 
regular high school of Joliet, for instance, a city of fifty or sixty 
thousand, is a township high school." 

" We draw from as large a territory as interurban lines of trans- 
portation reach and until we touch the zone of another high school 
district. For example, we have good connections at La Salle East and 
West, and consequently we draw from territory within fifteen miles 
on each side of us. Our attendance north and south is limited by 
the fact that there are no interurban connections, but only steam 
railway connections. Again twenty miles east of us at Ottawa is a 
large township high school, and five and twenty miles respectively west 
of us are two large township high school." 

6. State schools — 

Most of the foregoing curricula are local applications of the high 
school idea. That they represent the general trend is indicated by 
the fact that states prescribe the general type which may be deduced 
from these local curricula for all high schools within their borders. 

(a) A Middle West State. 



State Regulations 

"Every four-year curriculum shall contain at least fourteen year 
units of work. Unless for satisfactory special reasons exceptions are 
allowed, the following units of work should be found in every curricu- 
lum (a unit of work to mean one year's work of one period a day, or 
180 or more recitations). Recitation periods should be not less than 
35 minutes in length and a longer period is desirable. 

" I. Mathematics 2 units. 

"II. English: — 

(Includes literature, literary readings, composition, 
grammar and rhetoric) 2 units. 



STUDIES AND CURRICULA 



397 



1 III. Science : — 

(a) Physics or chemistry, ^elementary science. 

(b) Any one of the following sciences, or a combina- 

tion of not more than two of them, — botany, 
zoology, physiology, physical geography, I unit 2 units. 
'IV. History: — 

(a) United States history, including history of the 

constitution, 1 unit. 

(b) Ancient history, or ancient and medieval, or 

medieval and modern and English history, 1 unit 2 units. 
"V. In general curricula offering less than four years of 
work in a foreign language, there must be at least 
three units of work in English, and two and one-half 
units in history." 

"Maximum and Minimum Time Limits 



" 1. No subject, as a general rule, should be offered for a less time 
than one-half year. Algebra and geometry should never be re- 
quired for a period to exceed one year each. 

"2. Not less than two years of any foreign language should be offered. 

"3. The maximum time for history shall be three years, or four years 
including civics and economics. Where instruction in American 
history in the elementary schools is strong, it is advisable to 
have United States history follow rather than precede Euro- 
pean history. 

" 4. Civics and economics not to exceed one-half year each. 

"5. Teachers in all branches of study will be held responsible for re- 
sults in English, and all teachers of composition and literature 
are urged to make an especial effort to improve the administra- 
tion of this work." 



"The following general type curriculum including manual training 
and domestic science presents a specific application of the preceding 
principles and is given as a suggestive basis for the formation of new 
curricula. With slight variation it has been very widely adopted in 
the state. While it is desirable that there shall be a large degree of 
uniformity in the high school curricula of the state yet reasonable va- 
riation will be approved and it is neither intended to arbitrarily fix the 
place of the different subjects nor to discourage the adaptation of high 
school work to manifest local needs. Special curricula are made by 
combining special subjects with the type curriculum." 



First Semester 

English. 
Algebra. 



First Year 



Required Units 



Second Semester 



English. 
Algebra. 



* Elementary science should mainly consist of elementary physics 
and chemistry. 



398 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

First Semester Second Semester 

Elect Two Units 
Elementary Science. Elementary Science. 

Latin. Latin. 

Spelling, Penmanship, etc. Botany. 

Manual Training or Domestic Sci- Manual Training or Domestic Sci- 
ence, ence. 

Composition, Business Forms, etc. 

Second Year 
Required Units 
Ancient History. Ancient History. 

English. English. 

Elect Two Units 

Arithmetic. Physiology. 

Botany. Latin. 

Latin. Bookkeeping. 

Manual Training or Domestic Manual Training or Domestic 

Science. Science. 

Zoology. Geography. 

Third Year 

Required Units 
Geometry. Geometry. 

Medieval History. English History. 

Elect Two Units 

English. English. 

German. German. 

Latin. Latin. 

Citizenship. Grammar. 

Bookkeeping. Economics. 

Physical Geography. Chemistry. 
Chemistry. 

(b) A State in the Far West. 

First Class (Four- Year) High School 

Shall have a curriculum requiring fifteen units: 
Seven specified units : 
Three units English. 
Two units mathematics. 
One unit social science, including history. 
One unit natural science. 
Two additional academic units : 
One or both of these units shall be advanced work to meet the 
requirements of a second major of three units. 
Six elective units : 
Two units foreign language. Note: Students desiring tomake 
a major in foreign language will apply one of the additional 
academic units to foreign language. 



STUDIES AND CURRICULA 



399 



Four elective units to be used for whatever work best meets 
the needs of the individual. 

7. Small towns and villages. — Even small towns and villages, with 
their limited means, are following the same trends. Naturally the same 
wealth of curricula and options cannot be supplied, but the same spirit 
is there. 

(a) A New England town of less than five hundred families, with 
no state aid such as many such towns receive, because its valuation was 
higher than that established for drawing such aid. 



A High School of 4 Teachers and 64 Pupils Curriculum 



General 
English 1 
Algebra 

German ^ c «i«~+ 
Phys.Geog.l Sel f t 
Com.Arith. J 3 



Agricultural 
English 1 
Agriculture 
Bookkeeping 
German ^ 
Algebra ISelect 
Phys. Geog.J 1 



Commercial 
English 1 
Bookkeeping 
Com. Arith. 
Phys. Geog. 
or German 



English 2 
Plane Geom. 
German 
Biology 
Hist. 1 
Typewriting 



Select 



English 2 
Plane Geom. 
Agriculture 
German 
Hist. 1 
Biology 



Select 
3 



English 2 
Bookkeeping 2 
Hist. 1 1 

Sten. and Type. I Select 
German | 2 

Biology J 



English 3 
Algebra 3 

(half year) 
German 
Physics 
Hist. 2 



Select 
3 



English 3 
Agr. Physics 
German 
Hist. 2 
Algebra 

(half year) 
Type. 



Select 
2 



English 3 
Sten. and Type. 2 
German 1 ~ , 
Physics l 
Hist. 2 



u J. 



English 4 
Trig, and 

Adv. Alg. 
Chemistry 
Amer. Hist. 
Economics 



Select 
3 



English 4 
Agr. Chem. 
Amer. Hist. 
Economics 



English 4 
Bus. Prac. 
Amer. Hist. "| 
Chemistry I Select 
German | 3 
Economics J 



Specials (Elective) 

Public Speaking Soph., 

Manual Training Fresh., 

Mechanical Drawing Soph., 

Beginning Design or Sketching Fresh. 

Sewing Fresh. 



Jr., and Sr. 

Soph., Jr., and Sr. 
Jr., and Sr. 

Soph., Jr., and Sr. 



400 



THE HIGH SCHOOL 



College Preparatory 



Classical 
First Year 
English 
Latin 
Algebra 
Ancient Hist. 



Scientific 
First Year 
English 
German 
Algebra 
Ancient Hist. 



Second Year 
English 
Latin 
German 
Plane Geometry 

Third Year 
English 
Latin 
German 

Algebra (half year) 
Physics or Eng. Hist. 

Fourth Year 
English 
Latin 

Advanced Algebra (half year) 
Chemistry 
American History 



Second Year 
English 
German 

Plane Geometry 
Biology 

Third Year 
English 
German 

Algebra and Solid Geometry 
Physics or Eng. Hist. 



Fourth Year 
English 

Trig, and Adv. Alg. 
Chemistry 
American History 



Specials (Elective) 

Public Speaking Soph., Jr., and Sr. 

Manual Training Fresh., Soph., Jr., and Sr. 

Mechanical Drawing Soph., Jr., and Sr. 

Beginning Design or Sketching Fresh., Soph., Jr., and Sr. 

Sewing Fresh. 



(b) A "Mining Camp" High School offers three curricula, — col- 
lege preparatory, commercial, and scientific, with elective privileges. 

(c) A High School in a town that has risen from a Western desert 
has three business curricula, two and three years in length, besides 
evening courses, and two four-year curricula, Latin scientific and 
Scientific, with elective privileges. 

(d) A New England High School in a village of 6000, serving also 
as high school center for near-by rural townships. (Through a pro- 
vision of school law such townships may pay the expenses of _ sec- 
ondary pupils at neighboring high schools, instead of maintaining 
such schools themselves, — not an entirely satisfactory arrangement 
from several view-points, but a workable one.) This school offers 
college preparatory, scientific preparatory, general, commercial, do- 
mestic arts, and mechanic arts curricula, with elective privileges. 



STUDIES AND CURRICULA 



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4 o8 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

A Pacific Coast School (Concluded). 

General Notes: Oral Expression and Gymnasium require two hours 
per week. All other subjects have daily recitations and receive full 
credit. Subjects requiring more than one period per day are followed 
by numbers in parentheses. One subject under each numeral must be 
taken, except in college preparatory curriculum (2), in which four sub- 
jects are required each year. 

Collegiate Work: 13th and 14th Year Curricula. 

English : History : 

Composition — Narration, De- History of the U. S. Terri- 

scription, Exposition torial Growth * 

Chronological Study of Eng- History of the Last Century 

lish Literature by Types .,<■,. 

Social Sciences: 

Mathematics: Introduction to Social Sci- 

Solid Geometry ence* 

Trigonometry Psychology, elementary 

College Algebra Logic, deductive 

Calculus, differential, integral Advanced Economics* 

Analytical Geometry Parliamentary Government in 

Europe and America 

German : 

Elementary German Natural Sciences: 

Advanced Physics of the Home. Bac- 

Literature teriology of the Home 

General Botany 

French : Chemistry; 

Elementary Qualitative Analysis 

Advanced Quantitative Analysis 



Literature 



*Given alternate years not in 
1915-1916. 



^ (b) A Second High School in the same city offers seventeen cur- 
ricula, — commerce, home economics, electrical engineering, mining en- 
gineering, civil engineering^ art, mechanical draughting, architecture, 
music, industrial, dressmaking and millinery, chemistry, mechanical 
engineering, general elective, college preparatory (two different cur- 
ricula), journalism. 

These schools give a vivid idea of the splendid service rendered by 
great cosmopolitan high schools. At the same time, with eighty other 
high schools in the same city offering various curricula ranging in 
number from three to eleven, besides several Junior High Schools 
providing six curricula, they bring into sharp relief the result of the 
nineteenth century tendency to scatter high schools and high school ad- 
ministration, with the consequent financial loss and loss in mutual 
cooperation, appreciation and civic unity. In contrast with this the 
twentieth century is to tend toward greater concentration and higher 
educational efficiency. 



XXIV 

THE HIGH SCHOOL OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, — PRINCIPLES 

AND METHOD 

Study-content, — more important than the curriculum. — 
But study-content is more important than the formal curricu- 
lum. It is this that makes the real curriculum. The twentieth 
century high school is to adapt the content of studies more care- 
fully to the qualities of the adolescent, both physical and psy- 
chical. This is not an abstract matter to be settled by the ap- 
parent demands of the studies themselves. Technical and pro- 
fessional education is not aided by assigning to the adolescent a 
kind of instruction and technique for which he is not fitted, or 
for which he has, at that stage, a natural repugnance. There 
is adolescent material in every subject, and there is infinite scope 
for the selection of material of this type. The curriculum itself 
is meaningless form. Choice of content and manner of presen- 
tation give it vitality and validity. It is here that we touch the 
individual. In this sense only is the curriculum a part of school 
environment. In this sense it becomes the most important part 
of that environment. It is through this selective process that 
the school promotes physical, intellectual, and moral health, 
and brings to bear upon the pupil forms and forces that relate 
themselves readily to adolescent characteristics. It is through 
this that the high school trues all its educational material and 
processes to its opportunities and just ends, giving clear vision, 
inspiring high endeavor, and inculcating ideas of public service. 

Some principles to be used in determining study-content. — 
The great purpose of secondary education is to give the 
adolescent an adolescent's knowledge and appreciation of the 
choicest treasures in the experience of the race, and to initiate 
him into citizenship. This involves an intelligent grasp of his 
special vocation, when the secondary school is his " finishing 

409 



4 io THE HIGH SCHOOL 

school." This is true historically, and it accords with the psy- 
chology and pedagogy of the period. Applied to present-day 
education it means that the secondary period is a time for in- 
ducting into great subjects, for developing great interests, for 
settling the guiding habits of life, intellectual, physical, social, 
and religious. 

From the point of view of instruction the main point is to 
lead a pupil to love a subject. We must strike directly at his 
interests and build systematically from this point. Dominant 
interests in the pupil and point of attack in the subject must 
coincide. Details that the ten-year-old relishes or at least mas- 
ters with a good grace, and the finesse and technique that ap- 
peal to the older student find no marked favor with the adoles- 
cent. The larger ideas, whose meaning and suggestiveness are 
more evident, are for him. We sometimes so pervert order 
that we repel from a subject when we might attract. 

Language study as an example. — To be more specific, form- 
work and drill in Latin should come in the pre-pubertal period. 
The kind of work often provided for the adolescent, — work in 
which a boy of nine or ten might be content and even enthusias- 
tic, — repels the high school student, and doubtless explains in a 
measure the partial dissolution of Latin classes as they finish 
the first term's work. 1 Latin is a very useful study, if con- 
ducted so as to realize its utility. In , the coming high school 
content and method will be such as to adequately reward the 
pupils who elect it. In language study generally, whether we 
are concerned with English or with some foreign language, the 
adolescent should be occupied, on the grammatical side, with 
some of the larger ideas of grammar that afford stimulating and 
inspiring application of intellectual muscle. Such application 
may be made, particularly in the direction of self-expression, 
or composition, which should have a splendid growth at this age 
if rightly managed. On the other hand, he should be led to 
love literature and get something of its spirit. Clouston says 
that now for the first time comes any real appreciation of litera- 
ture. The study of literature in the high school, therefore, 
should take hold of this rising adolescent quality. The in- 

iSee articles by G. S. Hall and E. B. Bryan in Ped. Sem., Vols 
7 and 9. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 411 

tensive study of pieces, as such, is a mistake psychologically and 
linguistically. 2 

Science as an example. — Again the mastery of the common 
facts of science, as facts, comes in the elementary school. A 
new order of objective work to meet the new power of observa- 
tion that is dawning, and especially the study of processes, of 
meanings, and of relations, the stimulation of great laws, and 
the inspiration of the lives of great scientists fit the nature of 
the adolescent and will mark the twentieth century study of ele- 
mentary science in the high school. 3 As in literature, we too 
often expect the pupil to occupy himself with fine details, dry 
and abstract discussions of what are supposed to be pre- 
liminaries of the subject, and patient investigation. 

In suggesting adolescent material in these subjects hints have 
been given as to the perversion of order and the lack of peda- 
gogical judgment that have been too common in laying out 
these high school courses. The same conditions may be found 
in other subjects. It is not possible to follow the logical order 
as laid down in a systematic treatise on a subject. Another 
kind of logic rules. The elements of a subject found in a 
treatise, or in a reduced copy of a treatise, — the logically ar- 
ranged text-book, — do not, at least as ordinarily conceived, rep- 
resent adolescent educational material. Such material must be 
culled and arranged in an order adapted to the growth of the 
pupil. Material not found in the book must be used to sup- 
plement the book. Introductory lessons must be revised and 
improved and related to the secondary period. 

New text-books. — The high school is to have new text- 
books made on a different plan. But, more important than this, 
the text-book is to occupy its legitimate place and serve merely 
as a secondary agency. The pupil's first work in a subject or 

2 This, however, does not mean that some pieces may not be read 
with considerable reference to detail (of a sort applicable to the age), 
so that the pupil may get a suggestive plan for reading, and get it as 
concretely as possible. Most of the intensive reading, however, as 
now conducted, is not for this purpose. The meaning of it all is this, 
that the main aim should be adolescent appreciation of literature, not 
finesse. 

3 See G. S. Hall in Ped. Sem. Note here the reorganization of science 
in the Mass. High Schools, Rept. of Mass. Board of Education, 1912-13, 
pp. 103, 136, and the reorganization of high school mathematics. 



4 i2 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

topic is to be direct, rather than indirect through some book. 
This makes it possible for the book to fulfil its larger function 
as a means of stimulating study and reference supplementary to 
the direct work. Again a subject cannot be divided into sec- 
tions longitudinally or latitudinally, one for the secondary 
school, one for the college. Such a relation of schools does not 
exist, or does not exist in such a form. 

High school period a selective one. — The secondary period, 
looked at from all points of view, is a peculiarly selective one. 
Right selection secures interest. When once the pupil is se- 
curely interested in a subject, the abstract organization of parts 
into a logical whole will come in a more natural way than when 
forced prematurely, and will come all the better because of the 
firm hold which the subject has upon him. He has a logical or- 
der quite as good as the other, and, what is of more moment 
here, much better adapted to him. We have tried to be logical 
in the wrong way. Probably less has been done on this phase 
of pedagogy than on any other. It furnishes a great field for 
investigation and study; for the kind of educational material 
and the kind of relations are matters of peculiar concern in an 
adolescent school. Administrators of the twentieth century 
high school are to occupy this field and adjust the secondary 
school to its duties and opportunities by a truer educational 
selection. 

So much has been said as to the study side of the high school 
because it has occupied and continues to occupy the forefront 
of attention and has absorbed most of the effort of the school. 
It is an instinctive concession to a deep seated prejudice. In 
reality the program of studies will be a minor part of the twen- 
tieth century high school. The principles of selection that 
apply to it, however, apply also to all the other influences of the 
school, social and intellectual, some of the most important of 
which are to be considered in the latter part of this chapter and 
in the next. 

The new high school as a factor in the revision of the 
elementary program. — In this adjustment of the program of 
studies and of content it will be feasible to render a very distinct 
and long-needed service to the elementary school. Its curricu- 
lum and curriculum-relations need readjustment quite as much 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 413 

as any part of the secondary school. At present our elementary 
grades are literally lumbered with study material that is not 
merely extraneous to its just purposes, but is needed in the 
higher schools. Much of grade geography, as at present out- 
lined, belongs in the high school, not merely because it is a con- 
fusing element in the grades and not suited to the development 
of grade pupils, but because it is peculiarly germane to high 
school aims and purposes. This is true also of a part of his- 
tory, truer of a substantial portion of arithmetic, and truer still 
of grammar. 4 The past inconsiderate exploitation of the cur- 
riculum of the grades has caused some of the most serious 
school problems, and has given rise to some of the most serious 
criticism of the present day. 

Some things the high school will take from the elementary 
school. — The twentieth century high school will have a broad 
course in geography in its science group, not a review, but a true 
cultural and scientific course. This will relieve the grades of 
some of their present over-load. Different departments of the 
high school will have a strong technical course in arithmetic, 
and there will probably be a good general course in the subject. 
This will relieve the grades of much misplaced effort incident 
to attempting work beyond the experience and thought-power 
of grade pupils, and will secure a substantial foundation for 
the mathematical work of the technical departments of the 
high school in place of the necessarily unreliable foundation that 
the grades now furnish, because they find imposed on them a 
strictly impossible task. 

The high school will also have in the latter half of its course 
of training, when it can be made comprehensible and practical, 
a broad course in English grammar, including all but the sim- 
pler concrete work. Here again the grades will be freed from 
a monstrous pedagogical blunder. Grammar became fixed in 

4 Particularly the more complex and abstract portions of physical, 
economic, and industrial geography, which is now well represented in 
the grades ; technical arithmetic, — stocks and bonds, technical problems, 
complex and abstract operations ; in history the more complicated mili- 
tary movements, the more abstract portions of constitutional history, 
much of " administration " history, etc. It is questionable whether some 
of this is not out of place even in the high school, — particularly some 
topics in history. 



414 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

the curriculum in an age when grammar was the chief subject. 
It was grammar of a different type, but this fact was lost sight 
of in devotion to a name. It was the central study of the 
early secondary school, as we have seen in earlier chapters, but 
in the shuffle of the centuries it has been inconsiderately shifted 
to the elementary school. 

An emancipated and rejuvenated elementary school, in a 
position to do thoroughly and interestedly work fully adapted 
to it, will be one of the chief contributions of the twentieth 
century high school to general education. 

Method in the twentieth century high school. — Choice of 
content is essentially a part of method. The other part is or- 
ganization of content and application of it to the individual. 
This part of method is to be more fully adapted to the high 
school pupil's characteristics 5 and to the times. It is still 
found, in the first epoch of the twentieth century, that high 
school methods in the average school are abstract, formal, and 
remote, far from bringing educational material and pupils into 
vital educational relations. 6 

Advance over the old high school. — In the first place the 
more pedagogical and psychological methods which were usher- 
ing in a new epoch in the study of typical subjects and in the 
development of power and initiative, in the late nineteenth cen- 
tury, 7 form a strong basis for the growth of method in the 
new century. These methods, by whatever name known, — 
concrete, objective, inductive, laboratory, scientific, genetic, de- 
velopmental, — are to be more perfectly developed, organized, 
and applied and adjusted to high school pupils and to the pur- 
poses of high school education. The laboratory idea is to have 
a much wider application. Without going into all details of 
the coming method, which would be impracticable here, we may 
note some of its principles and supplement what was said in 
Chapter XX as to its spirit and purpose. 

5 See the author's summary of these characteristics in the Jour, of 
Ped., 17 (1904-5) : 114 ff. See also Chapter XXII. 

6 It is almost gratuitous to make estimates in such things, but we 
should perhaps not be far from the truth to say that fifty per cent, of 
teaching effort has gone under the feet or smoothly over the head of 
the average high school pupil, because matter and method of instruction 
have been poorly adapted to him. See page 512, note 14. 

7 See Chapter XX. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 415 

The teacher the chief element of method — His qualifica- 
tions. — The teacher of the twentieth century high school, as 
ever, will be the chief element of method. This teacher will be 
distinguished by a knowledge of and sympathy for the adoles- 
cent that will be almost intuitive, by a broad mastery of sub- 
jects to be taught, by skill in separating adolescent material 
from the mass, by command of methods adapted to the high 
school pupil, by power to suggest ideals, to interest, and to in- 
spire. His method is to begin with and center in the human 
subject, not the culture subject. With such equipment and 
such aims he will be able to do an infinite work for the physical, 
as well as for the psychical, boy and girl. 

Physical and mental effects of method. — On the physical 
side it may be said that every failure in determining a proper 
curriculum, in selecting and organizing material, or in bringing 
this material into educational contact with pupils brings a 
mal-adjustment of adolescent forces and a nervous pressure 
which are unhygienic and threaten distinct injury to the 
physical adolescent. On the other hand happy selections, 
guided by an appreciative knowledge of adolescent life, en- 
courage spontaneity and, so far, promote the health of the 
whole physical mechanism. Stress and strain may be abated, 
or even abolished, by method. They may, on the other hand, 
be increased to the breaking point. Again the teacher's mode 
of procedure in bringing pupil and subject together conditions 
intellectual growth. If it brings a distaste for the subject it 
destroys its value for mental growth ; but it may quite as easily 
do the reverse. The teacher of the twentieth century high 
school is to have a keener sense of method. It will be interest- 
ing to note some of the special lines of method-influence he 
is to follow. 

The psychology of method. — The adolescent must possess a 
subject in his own way, — through personal experience, ob- 
jectively; through discussing, relating, organizing. The time 
for observation and objective work in any subject, 8 even in 
language, has not passed, though the nature of such work 

8 It is interesting to recall here what was said of out-of-door study 
when discussing the physical side of the program, as it shows how special 
opportunities for objective work are at hand. 



4 i6 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

changes, as we approach this period of education. Psycho- 
logically, method now, as before, brings into play, and depends 
upon, the perceptive powers, but a new perceptive power has 
come, a new world of perception has opened. 9 The adoles- 
cent gathers new facts and new kinds of facts. This work is 
to be supplemented (not preceded), and reinforced by the in- 
spiration of books, as stated in another connection. Such in- 
spiration depends upon, and is conditioned by, the apperceptive 
basis the pupil can bring to the book. This new observation 
is accompanied by a more significant induction and inference 
than has been possible before. The adolescent is relating facts 
as at no previous age. Loose aggregations no longer satisfy. 
He is not preoccupied with the sensory relations of younger 
pupils, nor with such logical relations as appeal to the older 
student. He is organizing knowledge into the larger wholes 
that best suit his nature. 

From a little different point of view we may say that adoles- 
cence is the time for suggestion more, than for minute and 
formal work, which is better suited to other ages. Form gives 
place to spirit, form-work to interpretation. The new method 
will therefore feel the influence of this adolescent attitude. 
Stated in a larger way, method depends upon imagination, upon 
the sentient processes that are maturing, and upon thought- 
processes in the large. The pupil is under the leadership more 
of emotional than of intellectual stimuli. He feels more than 
he knows, and more than he can express. He is ripe for in- 
spiration, for getting hold of things and letting things get 
hold of him. The twentieth century method will therefore be 
of the inspirational sort, to develop great enthusiasms, en- 
force ideals, encourage constructive work. It will present 
great facts and relate them in large ways to show their mean- 
ing. It will thus enable the pupil to " find himself " in various 
subjects of the program. Every subject has, somewhere about 
it, material for great ideals, in the lives of its votaries, in its 
beneficent contributions to civilization, or in some other out- 
look which it gives for focusing and directing interest. The 
emotional and impressionable adolescent, once vitally touched, 
will grow enthusiastic in the subject, and at the proper time 

9 Lancaster, " Psy. and Ped. of Adol.," in Ped. Sem. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 417 

and place will readily take up details that would have endan- 
gered success, if attempted earlier. Here again we touch the 
point discussed in another place. Who can develop, control, 
and direct the enthusiasms of the adolescent, and can mobilize 
them, insures the progress of ideals and their fulfilment, and 
controls the destiny of the state. 10 

Once more, it is well suggested that the period in question is 
a time for expression, that adolescent work must not consist 
of mere acquisition. Better, it is time for a new kind of ex- 
pression, for expression is an absolute requirement, in fact 
the most important requirement, at all periods. It gives point 
and meaning to education. Without it there is no education, 
and there is no real acquisition. It assumes special importance 
here in view of adolescent characteristics. Expression is not 
to be confined to formal lessons in language. Each study has 
its own peculiar expression that gives it point and meaning, and 
is as much a part of it as the subject matter of the study itself. 
Expression is double, language expression and application. 
Each study has its special language expression that affords 
valuable language training. The expression of application is 
very varied. Several types will suggest themselves, personal 
application, application in connection with other subjects and 
in problems of one's profession, social application. The lat- 
ter is the most significant. It will be considered in connection 
with a discussion of school administration in the next chapter. 

Old type of examinations to be discarded. — The twentieth 
century high school will not be an examination-less school. 
It will not, however, be characterized by traditional examina- 
tions. 11 Rather it will be a school of exploration, 11 discovery, 
development. Correlatively it will be a school that works, not 
by mass, but by individuals, exploring the individual's power 
and inspiring him to an endeavor equal to his best. It will ex- 

10 See Burnham, in School Review. 

11 From ex amino, which means first, to swarm, second, to weigh. The 
idea of examination had its rise in this second and less natural mean- 
ing that had to do with mere grossness, bulk. It has curiously re- 
curred, in our use of it, to its primary meaning, because it is so often 
merely an instrument of mass work. 

Explore, from exploro, which had the simple meaning that we or- 
dinarily attach to the English word. 



418 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

plore his power to follow up a subject suited to his years with 
continuity and with effective results, his power to think and re- 
late within adolescent limits, his power to express and to do, 
in order to really master fundamental facts, and, as a sum of all, 
his power to command himself. Examinations, if we are still 
to use the word, are to be a real educational agency instead of 
a pump. 

A teacher to every 20-25 pupils. — But there is a method- 
policy or principle that is more basal than anything thus far 
considered, because it provides for a more intimate educational 
contact between teacher and pupil. However good may be the 
other elements of method they are conditioned by the size of 
classes. High schools have grown in patronage beyond the 
capacity of school buildings and beyond the compass of the 
teaching force. The twentieth century high school will show, 
as one of its distinguishing characteristics, an improved ratio 
between the number of teachers and the number of pupils. 

Effect on method. — In place of the present impracticable 
condition under which a teacher may have from thirty to forty 
pupils, or even more, which means long-range, and hence light, 
training, the new organization of the high school must provide 
for classes of from twenty to twenty-five pupils. 12 Such an 
increase in facilities will give a new meaning and scope to 
method, and will increase the development of adolescent power 
many fold. 

More individuality in method. — Following the genius of the 
secondary school along the lines that have been suggested we 
see that the general trend of method is to be toward greater in- 
dividuality, first because of the differentiation of curricula and 
the opportunity to select work to meet individual purposes; 
second, because the teacher, having smaller classes, can come 
into closer association with individuals. 

The general trend of method.— Subordinate to this we see 
that the tendency is to be toward a new type of objective work 

12 William E. Chancellor says we need about one teacher to every 
sixteen pupils. The vital point, however, is the size of the class. The 
ratio of one to sixteen may or may not result in a proper adjustment 
of class relations. This is a matter of organization and administration. 
But a proper ratio between number of pupils and number of teachers 
is a fundamental condition for securing classes of proper size. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 419 

applicable to the adolescent; that work is to be initiatory, 
taking things in the large ; that it is to be inspirational, build- 
ing ideals and putting them into motion ; that it is to be moral 
and may easily guide the pupil into great habits ; that, whether 
we will or no, it is to be religious and may, without violating 
any religious code, give the pupil a religious attitude that will 
lead him to settle his personal religion in his own religious 
group in a way that will fulfil high aims, to the great advantage 
of himself and society. 

The adolescent's school work will not have the organization 
and system, the knowledge of fine details, and the deeper in- 
sight into the meaning of things that come after wider experi- 
ence, but it will have organization just the same, an organiza- 
tion specially suited to it. 

Central idea in method — Inspiration. — If we should select 
one word to characterize the method for adolescence, especially 
early adolescence, it would be the word inspirational. The late 
elementary school gives the drill which fixes forms and pro- 
vides " tools.'* The high school must inspire. The adolescent 
lends himself spontaneously to such influence. The teacher 
who can meet him with inspirational methods can send him to 
almost any worthy achievement. 

Primitive secondary education contrasted with that of 
later centuries. — Education of early centuries instinctively met 
the interests of boys of secondary age by its methods. 13 
Later centuries fell away from this spontaneous and natural 
method to something that grew more and more formal and 
artificial. It was not a wise system of formal education added 
to these natural means, but something supplanting them. The 
twentieth century will reorganize method along the line of the 
specific needs of the high school period, regarding the secondary 
period not as a subordinate, but a dominant one, having the 
right to prescribe conditions by which it relates itself to other 
periods and to life. 14 

13 See Chapter IV. 

14 Some Contrasts. — This advance in method that has been broadly 
outlined may be partly realized by a brief antithetic outline of the 
average method of the last century, showing what the pupil needed and 
what he received. 

The individual boy or girl demanded attention; the school gave it 



4 20 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Internal and external freedom. — This organization of cur- 
ricula and method which have been discussed in the last two 
chapters, will secure healthful internal freedom in the high 
school. There is to be also an external freedom, the counter- 
part of the internal. In the nineteenth century the college 
took a notable step toward this freedom by establishing more 
elastic entrance requirements. 14 The plan is to be worked out 
more consistently and with juster treatment of all elements of 
the secondary course of training. New tests of fitness will 
facilitate and enrich the freedom of the high school, and will 
help us to come nearer to the power-test for determining the 
progress of pupils. 

to the study-subject; that is where it individualized most. A multitude 
of impulses and activities demanded expression ; the school said that 
expression should come through the logical development of the subject 
as suggested to some adult brain. Impetuosity was there; the school 
tamed it by formal and difficult tasks, having almost a minimum of sug- 
gestion and inspiration. An instinct for orientation, for relating, for 
forming great and inspiring wholes, was present; the school stifled it 
with the memorizing of details and with severe formal study. Emo- 
tion was budding, to be nipped by the cold logic of books. Social im- 
pulses and altruistic thoughts were starting forward, to be barred from 
the great life of the world, and turned, through the quest of study- 
subjects into the egotistic narrowness condensed in the expression, 
" what is there in it for me ? " The restless, hungry, because growing, 
physical nature called, to be outshouted by the " course of study." In- 
heritances conspicuous in the adolescent, and demanding nothing short 
of the wisest care and solicitude, were ignored for the inheritances 
of the school. The adolescent asked for sympathy; the sympathy was 
given to the physics or the chemistry, the history or the Latin. In gen- 
eral the glowing adolescent was chilled and contracted by the cool 
ideas of men as applied to men; sometimes, even more unwisely, he 
was given riotous latitude. Many of these things were good in their 
places and in the right proportion, but they lacked that human element 
that the adolescent craves, if he is to achieve anything but a dwarfed 
development. The school was really more interested in its curriculum 
than in humanity. Hence the nervous strain ; hence the physical abuse. 
The school perverted and cramped and sometimes well-nigh ruined. 
With the change in method that has been described the subjects of study 
will not suffer ; they will be enhanced in value. 



XXV 

THE HIGH SCHOOL OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY — ORGANIZA- 
TION, EQUIPMENT, ADMINISTRATION 

A lost adolescent school. — The last chapter showed that 
the twentieth century high school is to be one adapted to adoles- 
cents. The school of early times, — especially the early Greek 
school, was a fair approximation to such a school. As shown 
in earlier chapters the school for adolescents was the initial 
school. It came long before the elementary school was inaug- 
urated. Its instruction and training were simple and definite 
and calculated merely to induct the novice into the inner life of 
the community and make him possessor of the choicest inherit- 
ances of the race. It was founded on an intuitive regard for 
adolescent characteristics. In the course of the centuries this 
school, or an essential part of it, was lost. The manner of 
losing is interesting. In early times adolescent training was an 
initiation, and coincident with, or in close connection with, 
initiation ceremonies. There were no professions or occupa- 
tions with technique that required study-preparation. " Life 
in the bush," * or apprenticeship, 1 Greek junior citizenship, 1 
or the Roman tirocinium, 1 supplied all the technique that was 
necessary. But, beginning with the sophist schools, there 
arose, in increasing numbers, professions and occupations that 
required more and more insistent study and longer training. 
At present this condition is more marked than ever. The num- 
ber of subjects of study increased amazingly. Content of 
studies increased very notably in amount and quality. Because 
of these growing demands the secondary school was subjected 
to tremendous pressure. Its tendency was to formalize its 
course and increase the amount of formal study. Its eyes 
were fixed rather upon what was beyond than upon itself, upon 

1 These training periods, it will be remembered, followed the initiation 
ceremonies. 

421 



422 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

preparation for a " higher course " rather than upon develop- 
ment of genuine secondary school power. It thus lost sight of 
typical adolescent aims and processes. 

Pressure from above. — The pressure came from two direc- 
tions. It came most from the university, to which, as we have 
seen, the secondary school early became attached as a prepara- 
tory school. The striking increase in demands upon the higher 
school for training experts and specialists in all departments 
of effort, industrial, commercial, scholastic, professional, in- 
creased the exactions put upon secondary education as a foun- 
dation for university and technical college. Through this rela- 
tion the secondary school came to be devoted to a course of 
formal training of a rather intense type, in fact one assimilated 
to the college type, and this status has not yet been radically 
changed. 

Pressure from vocational education. — On the other hand, 
since the revision of its relations to the university, giving it 
greater freedom of development, and more particularly since 
the demand for " vocational training " became urgent, the sec- 
ondary school in general and especially the high school rapidly 
became the universal preparatory school for life, and as such 
was subject to the most intense pressure a school has ever seen. 
It became essentially formal and technical, yielding to the 
idea, to which it was long subjected, that the study of books 
and formal training in subjects were the preparation to be 
sought. 

A longer preparation for the high school. — As these re- 
quirements were increased the high school in turn increased 
demands upon elementary education. The tendency was thus 
to lengthen and postpone the period of secondary education till 
its outer limit was several years later than at the beginning of 
the nineteenth century. Through influence from above the 
scope and character of its work became radically different from 
those of the initial secondary school, with its traditional aims 
and methods and its stimulus to initiative. 2 From pressure at 

2 The extension and postponement of the period of secondary edu- 
cation and the demand for professional and occupational education do 
not explain this difference fully. From the early years of university 
attachment the university supplied both teachers and methods. Even 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 423 

both ends of the line secondary education gave way in the 
middle. One section of it was forced out, — that which was of 
a genuinely adolescent nature. Pupils thus lost a distinctive 
element of secondary education that is, in fact, the central ele- 
ment, and were projected from the formal instruction of the 
higher elementary, or grammar school, directly into college 
aims and method. They lost a content, a method, a point of 
view, a directing and impelling force for effort and work that 
only a genuine adolescent school can give. Both nature and 
science impress this fact. To this is largely due the unsatisfy- 
ing results of present secondary education, the failure of the 
high school to hold the attention and foster the interest of a 
majority of high school pupils for a sustained four-year cur- 
riculum. 

The adolescent school restored. — The twentieth century 
must bring back this lost but not outworn element of secondary 
education. To do this it must consider pupils from the age 
of twelve upward to the college limit. 3 It will therefore no 
longer be a four-year high school, but one of larger extent. 
This will permit us not only to restore that adolescent training 
now so keenly needed, but, as the high school is a finishing 
school in so many cases, to include something of more formal 
and technical training. 

The twentieth century high school not a four-year school 
— A double school. — The twentieth century high school will 
therefore be a reorganized and a double school. The first sec- 
tion will take pupils at the end of the sixth grade of the ele- 
mentary school. By that time all that is valuable in the present 
congested and anachronous elementary curriculum can be well 
done and with higher results that will make a better basis 
for higher work, or a better introduction to life. 8 The high 
school will then give them a preliminary training of the initia- 
tory type, suited and necessary to early adolescent years and 

before the establishment of the mediaeval university Greece and Rome 
had established a higher education, with the secondary school as feeder. 
The secondary school very early lost its distinctive method and was 
supplied with another, — the one that was handiest, not the one best 
fitted for it. 

3 This presupposes a genuine revision of the elementary curriculum on 
educational principles. 



424 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

calculated to stimulate ambition to carry training to a higher 
stage. The second section of the school will be devoted more 
to the technique of studies and vocations, verging toward the 
collegiate type. Aside from the practical considerations in 
the case, nature herself seems to have established a line of 
cleavage at the end of the sixth grade, both in subjects of study 
and in psychologic characteristics. Again at the age of about 
eighteen comes a dividing point in the period of adolescence, 
beyond which the adolescent seems to be ready for a type of 
work somewhat different from that of preceding years. 

The " six-year " high school. — To meet the need of a reor- 
ganized high school the six-year high school appeared in out- 
line in book schemes about the close of the last century. It is 
just beginning to work itself out in actual school plans and 
forms. In this six-year high school there are two sections 
each occupying three years. It is a question whether the 
magic of numbers has not influenced the division. Six and six, 
and three and three seem artificial. They have not yet been 
proved. The six is more probable than the three. But these 
are only details. Whatever the actual form of the new high 
school may be, one thing is plain, — the adolescent school and 
its legitimate work are to be restored, for it has a distinct and 
imperative mission, as a foundation for secondary education. 
At present there is no foundation, and as a makeshift we are 
using the elementary school as such, so far removed from it 
in spirit and work that it makes a false base and renders the 
structure insecure. 

Organization of the new school — Distinctive parts. — In 
the reorganized school the adolescent school will occupy the 
first section, whether of three or four years. From its very 
nature it will have a distinct organization, administration, cur- 
riculum-content and method. It will for a time be the hardest 
school in the whole series to adapt to its special aims. Teach- 
ers must be trained, study-content must be worked out, organi- 
zation and administration must be determined with special ref- 
erence to these aims and to adolescent characteristics through 
which the aims are to be reached. So far as we have provided 
any special training at all we have been chiefly concerned with 
preparing teachers to teach high school subjects and pupils 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 425 

in general. We must now train them to teach and administer 
in special sections of high school work. 4 Teachers must be 
equipped to give real initiation into typical subjects and pur- 
poses, and particularly into great ideals, with the emphasis on 
the adolescent. The teacher here must forget college work 
and method that have been impressed upon him, must be con- 
tent to suppress many details that have generally hampered 
early high school work, to take the subject in the large, and 
to put into free action the inspirational side of teaching. In 
this way the high school beginner will have a real induction into 
the new world of science and art, literature and history, and all 
the rest. He will get at just meanings and values, and gain 
wide views and contacts, as a preliminary to a strong grip at 
some particular vantage point later. On success here depends 
success in the advanced school and in life. If a teacher has 
not the gift, or acquisition, of large, inspirational teaching, the 
adolescent school is not the place for him. 

Methods of the two schools to be differentiated. — The pre- 
vious chapter has given in some detail a forecast of the method 
of the coming high school, as it would appear from a study of 
present tendencies and of the conditions to be met. It is evi- 
dent that typical adolescent method will come in the first sec- 
tion of the newly organized high school, which may conven- 
iently be named the Junior High School. Method in the Senior 
High School and even beyond will have much of the same 
spirit, but it will shade from that of the junior school toward 
more technical work, for it is time to be getting the technique 
of study and vocation. For this reason it is very doubtful 
whether the arrangement of the two high schools by threes is a 
scientific one. 

All this means that the two high schools must have distinct 
plants, or distinct suites, and distinct equipment, including 
teaching force. They are so distinct in aims and methods that 
they cannot share opportunities, except in a general way, — in 
museums, in collections, and, perhaps, in laboratories. 

4 A training school for these teachers will naturally be affiliated with 
a great high school, i.e., a " university of high schools." For stimulus 
to broad scholarship and for various advantages that are patent, it 
should also be affiliated with a university. 



426 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

But high schools and departments of schools are to be 
concentrated, not scattered. — So far we have been consider- 
ing organization and administration from the point of view of 
school ages and general educational aims. It is quite as inter- 
esting to consider them from the point of view of special aims. 
We found in Chapter XXIII that the coming high school is 
to have various programs of studies suited to different depart- 
ments or schools into which high school education is becoming 
differentiated. Each program will give rise to several curricula 
adapted to special ends. 5 The tendency in large centers has 
been to place these differentiated departments or schools in dif- 
ferent locations, one in one part of the city, another in another 
part. Such a policy is untenable. The best fulfilment of twen- 
tieth century high school aims requires a central and well- 
articulated, rather than a scattered administration. A separate 
organization for industrial and vocational education would de- 
feat its fundamental purpose. The movement in high school 
education must be centripetal. 

The twentieth century high school is therefore to be a com- 
munity of schools, — a university of schools, having common 
interests and common tasks, but each school organized for its 
special end, and at the same time in such a way as to give broad 
training, develop broad interests, and make broad thinkers. 

Dangers of isolation. — In the early days of specialization 
the tendency was to make one's study and thought too restricted, 
limiting it to some minute field, and especially separating it 
from necessary correlations. The result was a narrow spe- 
cialization that was likely to prove weak through its own little- 
ness and inexactness. 6 A similar separation and isolation 
would hinder or thwart the main aim of high school education, 
viz., to make a true citizen of the world, a cementing and unify- 
ing force, not a mere member of a group with disintegrating 
tendencies. Civic conservation and progress depend in large 
degree upon mutual respect between different groups of con- 

5 See Chapter XXIII. 

6 Specialization is a fundamental necessity in all departments of human 
effort. It inevitably brings a kind of separation. To fulfil its purpose 
it requires a unifying and broadening spirit, — requires, as an absolute 
characteristic, ability and disposition to think in fundamental social, 
civic, industrial, and political units. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 427 

tributors to community wealth, tangible and intangible, and 
upon the understanding and appreciation of one another's 
interests. 

Community ideals dependent upon centralization of high 
school education. — The secondary school is the basal school 
for starting these social ideas. The very psychology of the 
secondary school pupil shows that this is the vantage time of 
life for developing those habits of thought that make for indus- 
trial peace and for true democracy in all directions. The high 
school with its new vocational work offers the finest sort of 
opportunity for carrying out this principle and carrying it far 
enough to settle these ideas for life. Concentration of all de- 
partments of high school work in a single plant furnishes the 
exact conditions needed for training to think in those funda- 
mental units upon which successful democracy rests. It makes 
the right conditions also for creating a community of industrial 
interests. It gives a better understanding of the other fellow 
and his work, and at the same time it brings greater zest into 
high school life and larger educational values. 

A co-educational school. — The spirit of the reasoning we 
have been following will make the twentieth century high school 
a coeducational rather than a divided institution. Contact of 
the feminine mind and the masculine mind is broadening for 
both. A girl's points of view and intuitions are different from 
the boy's. Appreciation comes through opportunities to under- 
stand one another broadly. How could this be possible if high 
school education were to be divided? Considered from either 
the social or the intellectual point of view then coeducation 
argues itself. The argument from social economy and school 
finances is patent. 7 

7 The social argument is stated rather aptly in the following quota- 
tion : — 

" The young woman who knows young men only in dress suits 
will get a very false opinion of them. Woman in her hour of ease is a 
very inferior creature to woman at work, and it is inevitable that a man 
who knows her only in the former guise will get an unfavorable opinion 
of the sex. When man gets to looking on woman as an amusement 
his moral ruin is impending, because he can find plenty of women who 
are very amusing, but not otherwise fitted for his companionship. Men 
and women will always attract each other, but it is only by meeting in 
their every day work as helpmates and rivals, as comrades and com- 



428 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Some limitations. — But, as was shown in the Appendix to 
Chapter XX, the physiological and mental development of the 
two sexes differs, if not in kind, yet in time. Girls mature 
materially earlier than boys. Hence the same kind and degree 
of scholarship-results cannot be expected of both at the same 
age. As already suggested, therefore, there will naturally be 
some separation, in order to bring out the best educational re- 
sults for both. But at the same time the school organization 
will provide abundant opportunity, both in class-room and 
otherwise, for the two sexes to associate and to study and 
understand one another under most approved conditions. 

Principles of concentration. — A brief outline of the 20th 
century high school toward which our chapters have been lead- 
ing will illustrate, and at the same time extend and strengthen, 
the argument. The school must meet three conditions: — 1. 
The Senior High School must be distinct from the Junior High 
School. 2. Each department of the senior school must have 
equipment and facilities for doing its special work in an enter- 
prising and masterful manner, and at the same time must have 
access to means for a general, to support the special, education. 
3. There must be opportunity for exchange of ideas between 
departments and for rather intimate association of pupils of 
one department with those of another. The outline will be as 
follows for a large municipality. For smaller communities and 
for scattered communities details will differ to suit special con- 
ditions, but the fundamental idea will be the same. 

General plan. — 1. A site that will afford an environment 
in keeping with the highest secondary school ideals. 

2. A general school building, with ample assembly facili- 
ties, a suite of class-rooms, and general equipment in the form 
of library, collections, and other means of interest and instruc- 
tion. This will serve at once as a special school for those fol- 
lowing a general curriculum or a literary curriculum, as a refer- 
ence hall, and particularly as a meeting place for various groups 
of pupils, and even for the whole pupil body, for common lec- 

panions, that they will respect each other. All artificial substitutes for 
such normal mingling, whether devised for scholastic, religious, or 
financial purposes, have resulted in diseased conditions of the im- 
agination." From an editorial in the New York Independent. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 429 

tures and exercises and for the daily initial program that will 
be both instructive and inspirational. This central school may 
be named the school of literature, art, and music (though this 
detail is not an essential part of the plan). 

3. Various schools grouped around this center. — Closely 
connected with this central hall by protected passages or other 
ready means of access will be various schools, each fully 
equipped with appliances for doing its peculiar work, and an 
assembly room of its own to be used for special purposes. In 
this way the following additional schools will be provided : 

(a) A Science School. 

(b) A Mechanic Arts School. 

(c) A Commercial School. 

(d) -A Horticultural tand Agricultural School. 

(e) A Technical School. 

(f) A Supplementary Vocational School. 

Reasons for a high school of horticulture and agriculture. — 
Only the fourth one in the list will perhaps suggest a query. 
A little consideration, however, will show that it has a distinct 
place even in the city. I. High school opportunities should 
include all standard activities; otherwise some departments of 
endeavor will be shut off that may be the very ones in which 
certain pupils would come nearest to fulfilling the measure of 
their ability. To choose the best each pupil should have access 
to all. Horticulture and agriculture demand as careful educa- 
tion and as much science, and bring into play as high a degree 
of mentality, as any vocation or profession. They offer as 
many charms as the best. They give returns equal to the best. 
To shut off access to this great field of effort therefore is to 
leave potential units of efficiency undeveloped; for the school 
in question would give pupils an opportunity to waken dormant 
interests in nature and nature's occupations and, in many cases, 
to develop a skill in rural vocations that would give a broader 
success and satisfaction than would be possible in any other 
field of endeavor. The opportunity for broadening thought 
and culture is evident and gives added value to the plan. 2. 
There must be interchange between city and rural life. The 
old stream cannot go on flowing from country to city and pre- 
serve the integrity of population. There must be two parallel 



430 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

streams flowing in opposite directions. Many residents of 
cities would succeed better in the country. The school we are 
discussing would re-form habits, and it would start new habits 
in city children that would take them to country opportunities 
and country wealth, material and otherwise. To cut off 
avenues of effort in a city and in city schools is a sure bid for 
proletariat conditions and a proletariat spirit. 3. Much city 
space is now wasted, considered either from the point of view 
of beauty or from that of other utility. A utilization of vacant 
lots and home enclosures, which would be a part of the system- 
atic program of the school in question, would add indefinite 
thousands to means of support and greatly add to a city's 
wealth and beauty. 4. The " City Beautiful " would also be a 
direct object of such a school, stimulating interest in beautify- 
ing public and private grounds and giving definite instruction in 
the practical working out of these ideas. Public parks might 
well be in charge of the school and thus managed with a new 
economy. Actual participation in the management and care 
of such things enhances their value and significance in the minds 
of the people. Too much done for any class of people, with 
no thought or care or exertion on their part, cheapens the thing 
done even in their estimation, and does not encourage a public, 
or civic, spirit. 

Social and financial advantages of a university of high 
schools.— We are to have then, as already suggested, a uni- 
versity of high schools. Here in close association the student 
body, though separated naturally into special groups, is as 
naturally united in common interests and aims. It is supplied 
with the best conditions for following special programs toward 
individual aims and general programs toward the central aim 
of intelligent, well-directed citizenship. Each group learns to 
be appreciative of every form of endeavor and generous in ac- 
cording other groups opportunities for expression and develop- 
ment. Each one becomes better equipped and better disposed 
to work for common interests, because it can approximate 
others' conception of the fundamental ideas on which healthy 
civic development rests. Because of this mutual sympathy, 
appreciation, and respect any community will have a surer, more 
rapid, and more economic development. There will still be 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 431 

healthful variety in unity, but the fantastic and wasteful diver- 
gence of the present will be reduced. Such an organization as 
is suggested will result in large financial economy in school ex- 
penditure and at the same time give the best conditions for 
economy of time, effort, and method in education. Community 
ideas and community virtues are more thoroughly and more 
quickly developed through a community of work. 

Special features of the Junior High School. — In the Junior 
High School departments may not be so thoroughly differ- 
entiated and organized into schools, for obvious reasons. This 
is not the period for specializing. It is rather the time, as has 
so often been emphasized, for initiation into great ideas and 
subjects, preparatory to more technical work. And yet, as so 
many will, for the present, end their school life here, there 
may be some elementary specialization. Such specialization, 
however, must be infused with the spirit of adolescent educa- 
tion founded upon the principles that issue from adolescent 
psychology ; it must be adapted to the adolescent's point of view. 

The Township High School an illustration of successful 
centralization. — That the centralized high school is practicable 
for other than very large communities is evident from the suc- 
cess of the Township High School of Illinois that has been de^ 
scribed with some detail in a previous chapter. 8 Its distinguish- 
ing characteristics are a central plant accommodating various 
departments or schools, curricula appealing to all interests, and 
dormitories for each sex to meet the needs of pupils whose 
homes are too remote to make daily trips feasible. These 
facilities furnish a stimulus and outlet for all the secondary 
activities of a large district. So broad are the opportunities 
offered that the school performs some of the functions of a col- 
lege, in addition to those of a high school. It is evident that 
the conditions for such broadening are favorable, whether we 
take the point of view of economy, or that of organization. 
The popularity of this type of high school is prophetic of the 
larger growth of the more fundamental idea of centralization. 

Extension work. — In the twentieth century high school 
there are to be social relations outside of the pupil body, for 
the school is going to enlarge its clientele by extending its ad- 

8 See Appendix of Chapter XXIII. 



432 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

vantages and inspiration to the general public, and particularly 
to that part of it that is still young and has missed high school 
work. In other words it is to add " public " curricula to its 
other specialized curricula, to provide continuous and sustained 
work of different grades for the non-school public. In this 
way it will unite community and school in closer bonds of ap- 
preciation. It will enlist both students and teachers in a co- 
operative " community work," since such a scheme will furnish 
various opportunities, within their power and time, to render 
service, though the main work will be done by a special staff. 

Universal high school education. — This twentieth century 
high school, adapting itself wisely to all secondary school 
interests, and organizing itself in close harmony with social, 
industrial, and culture conditions and opportunities, with its 
differentiated curricula and its " extension " work, is to provide 
facilities for the attendance of all children of secondary age 
and all others who desire secondary school privileges. More 
than this, it is to make its facilities seem so worth while that it 
will not only attract attendance, but almost compel it. Its mis- 
sion is to make attendance universal. As there are in the 
United States more than eleven million persons whose ages lie 
between fifteen and nineteen (inclusive), while in all the sec- 
ondary schools of the country, public and private, there are 
only about four million pupils, it is evident that the high school 
has a tremendous task before it. 9 

A whole-year and long-day school. — The high school will 
carry on its work not for certain restricted months and hours. 
It will be universal in another way. It will be a whole-year 
and long-day school, with the necessary relays in instruction, 
quarter year credits in place of half year credits, evening classes 
and day classes. It is thus to come up to its full economic 

9 We shall of course meet the objection of those who unfortunately 
believe that secondary education should not be given to all. But even 
if we make large allowance here, the task of the high school will be 
sufficiently great. The aim, however, should be, " universal high school 
education for the capable," and the capable are all the normal. See 
Chapter XXII, page 356. 

On this matter of numbers and proportions and aims William E. 
Chancellor has a telling and suggestive paragraph of which use has 
here been made. For fuller figures see page 357, note 9. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 433 

possibilities. This very fact will make it possible to extend 
the ministries of high school education without a correspond- 
ing increase of plants and current expenses. 10 

But we must consider more than the outside of the high 
school, the shell. Unfortunately at the present time more atten- 
tion is being given to this than to some other things that are quite 
as necessary. The equipment of the plant is the vital point in 
high school economy. The twentieth century equipment is to 
show a marked advance over that of the nineteenth century. 

Equipment, — material. — The typical high school of the late 
nineteenth century had the regulation laboratories for physics 
and chemistry, sometimes a makeshift laboratory for biology, 
a general library of a formal character and of very modest 
proportions, a stock of text-books, and the typical school seat. 
To this was sometimes added a lunch-room of a quasi com- 
mercial nature. The coming high school is to have a labora- 
tory for each department, — not merely for the sciences, but 
for history, literature, music, art, vocational work, and all the 
rest. Each is to be fully equipped with appliances and collec- 
tions appropriate to the department, for studying things as they 
are rather than through text-books. This will relieve the 
abstractions of the older school. With each laboratory is to 
go, as a coordinate element, a broad, well-selected collection 
of books, written from the stand-point of the adolescent and 
what he can and ought to get out of high school work. This 
will relieve the forcing and general anachronism of high school 
method. To facilitate this more vital work and to supply more 
hygienic conditions the seating of the school is to undergo 
striking reforms. Tables and chairs suitable for real work, 
instead of mere book-plodding, will take the place of the 
familiar stationary desk and seat. Finally the lunch room is to 

10 Details for working out such a plan would occupy a volume. But 
it should be noted here that in carrying out the vocational function of 
the high school abundant opportunity will be given for combining two 
kinds of work, study-work and the work of some occupations that may 
reasonably claim the attention of high school pupils. This will provide 
for general culture and for vocational training at the same time; in 
fact the former is part of the latter. It will provide a wholesome com- 
bination of interests and give steadying power to a large class of persons 
not now adequately reached by high school facilities. 



434 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

be a correlated rather than an isolated factor in high school life. 
It is to have intimate relations, as to principle and organization, 
with the physical and vocational departments. These are the 
fundamentals of the material equipment of the school. Aside 
from these each department or school will distinguish itself by 
details suited to the particular school or community and giving 
a fine outlet for initiative on the part of school authorities. 
One can at once picture many details appropriate for individual 
schools of this university of high schools. 

Equipment — Teachers — Their qualifications. — With this 
material equipment is to come its complement, higher teaching 
power. As already indicated, there will be many more teach- 
ers proportionally than now, a gain that will by itself secure 
better adolescent scholarship and larger educational values gen- 
erally, both in training and in administration. The advance in 
teaching qualifications, however, is to be more significant than 
increase in the number of teachers. The nineteenth century 
gave most attention to the knowledge side of the teacher's 
equipment. It followed at best a supposititious method in its 
high school teaching. The twentieth century is to have far 
broader training for secondary school teaching, and is to make 
this training an absolute requirement for every secondary 
school teacher. The school in which this training will be con- 
ducted is to organize a genuine adolescent method for the re- 
discovered adolescent school, in the direction of the method 
principles noted in the previous chapter. It will be the center 
of diffusion for this more vital method. There will be devel- 
oped a secondary school teacher who has not only a wider and 
richer knowledge of his subjects u than has been common be- 
fore, but a lively sympathy with the new method based upon a 
sympathetic knowledge of the psychology of adolescence. 
Such a teacher will be able to determine and utilize high school 
centers of attention, to organize and unify all effort for more 
definite and more characteristic results, and to transfuse pupils 
with the counterpart of his own enthusiasm. 

Sexes more evenly represented in the teaching force. — In 
this distinctive teaching force the sexes are to be more evenly 

11 Not merely knowledge, but power to select, adapt, and apply with 
a view to true adolescent aims. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 435 

represented. Adolescence has specific gains to be derived from 
each sex and must suffer if cut off from due opportunity to 
secure these gains. This would be true even if our schools 
were not organized on the principle of coeducation. With 
such an organization it is more emphatically true. 

Supervision. — But we need to utilize the best in a corps 
of teachers and to unify and correlate all teaching effort. We 
must secure greater economy and effectiveness in the use of 
educational material. We must be able to mobilize all effective 
values in the high school. This is especially necessary for suc- 
cess in the crucial epoch of development before the individual 
is thrust upon the responsibility of the scholastic or the world- 
university. Provision must therefore be made for organizing 
the material and human factors in the high school and uniting 
them in the most productive educational work. Hence the 
element of supervision must be enlarged, without, however, 
destroying the initiative of the individual teacher. A keen 
observer remarks : — " The high school needs one assistant 
principal with purely supervisory duties for every fifteen or 
eighteen teachers. It cannot be run profitably with no over- 
sight of teachers by superiors solely devoted to that purpose." 
We supply a great deal of purely supervisory assistance in the 
elementary school. In the equally critical secondary period, 
the last vantage period for determining educational and per- 
sonal interests and for forming the guiding habits of life, we 
should have equally careful supervision. All the facts of sec- 
ondary school life support such conclusions. The advance in 
organization that has been suggested may easily double the 
efficiency of the high school. The looser administration of 
the past is a characteristic derived from the college through 
the influences described in earlier chapters. 

Administration. — Administration in the twentieth century 
high school is to be determined by special high school charac- 
teristics that have already been dwelt upon. In the increase of 
administrative units in the personnel of the school the principal 
will become more distinctly an organizer, unifier, and inspirer. 
To make him more fully master of his opportunities he is to be 
supplied with a business manager who will have charge of the 
purely business details of the schools or departments in the 



436 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

administrative plan. In the larger systems a business man- 
ager will be required for each school of the university of high 
schools. 

Relation of teaching and administration. — But teaching 
itself involves administration. The old notion that a teacher 
has two distinct functions, the function of teaching and the 
function of disciplining, whatever that may have meant, is a 
false one. A good teacher and a poor disciplinarian or the 
reverse is an impossible combination. Teaching power most 
intimately involves power to organize and administer all class- 
room forces for lively and effective educational results. It is 
as one of the fundamentals of teaching-method that class-room 
management attains significance. A genuine adolescent cur- 
riculum and curriculum-content, with their effective ideals, 
teachers with adolescent aims and method carried out in the 
new spirit, and an educational environment supplied by the 
school site and the material equipment of the school to which 
reference has been made affect and forward administration in 
many ways. Every fine adjustment here goes far toward 
directing activities in normal, healthful channels. The govern- 
ment side of administration is largely settled here. 

Directing principles. — But there is need of some inform- 
ing principle that shall give scope, direction and force to man- 
agement and administration. If we follow out the aim of 
which we have caught fore-views at different points in the last 
chapters it will not be difficult to determine what the general 
plan is to be. We shall apply it here more particularly to 
high school government, but it plays an important part in school 
administration as a whole. We have seen that one of the dis- 
tinguishing features of the twentieth century high school is to 
be the direction from which aims are discovered and applied, — 
that the general am is to be from within. This will be the more 
evident and significant because an essential part of the high 
school is to be restored, 12 so that there will be more freedom to 
study the real needs and relations of the high school from a 
view-point within the school itself. In the general policy of 
the school there is to be less passivity, more activity, less order- 
ing from without, more ordering from within. The main idea 

12 A genuine adolescent curriculum and method. See Chapter XXIII. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 437 

in organization, whether for administration or for method, is 
to be genuine participation, not the formal participation that has 
so often satisfied. The principle will appear first and centrally 
in connection with curriculum, study-content, and method that 
make a very impressive part of high school environment 
through which pupils are inspired with ideals of government. 
These factors produce many of the best opportunities for genu- 
ine participation. Minds well occupied with productive activi- 
ties under the stimulus of cooperation best learn the great 
principles of control. 

Participation in government. — But participation must ex- 
tend beyond class-room work. The pupil is to participate, and 
feel the necessity and value of his contributions, in these direc- 
tions. But it is quite as essential that he should cultivate the 
same spirit by cooperating in the government and general 
activities of the school, though, as already shown, government 
is largely settled by a° sound organization of curriculum and 
method of instruction. 13 This double participation supplies 
the mainspring of social ethics. If this were some artificial 
scheme to be fitted over or into high school life, its value might 
be doubted. So far from being artificial, it is suggested by 
nature herself and is founded on very obvious principles. In 
the first place an idea becomes strong only through the prin- 
ciple of use, through doing. Doing is never sound and effica- 
cious till the moving force is from within. The direction must 
be from within outward. The plan of real participation in the 
policies and activities of the school establishes this direction 
and tends to make the organization and government of the 
school issue in self-direction, as all government, to have any 
point, must issue. Growing motives supplied by all parts of 
school life foster the idea. 

Cooperation emphasized by the psychology of adolescence. 
— Again, the general plan is suggested and enforced by prin- 
ciples of adolescent psychology. The high school pupil has 
certain well marked characteristics which commend coopera- 
tion in government. He likes to do things, likes the con- 
crete, likes ideals rather than rules, related facts rather than 
isolated ones. He is ready to participate, to organize associa- 

13 This includes as a basal element the personality of the teacher. 



438 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

tions for association's sake, and also for achieving results that 
give prestige and importance to the group. He has learned, or 
his instinct instructs him, to subordinate himself to the group. 
All this is due to his social feelings. Later he grasps the idea 
intellectually from the point of view of value to the individual 
and to the community. Action then becomes deliberative rather 
than instinctive. In the adolescent school he is just learning 
to socialize himself. 

Adolescence is also the period for relating things. Why 
confine this interest to relating cause and effect in geology and 
chemistry, form and expression in language, individual and 
group in zoology, and other similar relations? It would have 
even more legitimate exercise in relating the various acts that 
make up conduct to principles, motives to standards, modes of 
self expression to ideals, ideals to environment, forms and facts 
of government to the informing spirit beneath them and to 
their appropriate ends, and in relating self through all these 
avenues to the school-group and the town-group, — all this 
under the inspiration of participation in a great enterprise. 
Practice, i. e., expression, gives meaning to every idea and rela- 
tion, and gives skill and efficiency in executing ideas. There 
is every reason why the adolescent should share the responsi- 
bility of government that gives practical expression to all the 
ideas that have been mentioned. He will never really appre- 
ciate government till he does. He is fond of ideals, which are 
impelling forces. He needs to do something with his ideals. 
Let him do it in the most productive enterprise the world 
knows, government that issues in self-government. 14 

Reasons for preferring a cooperative plan to a scheme of 
self-government. — The adolescent needs scope, but at the 
same time needs wide and sympathetic guidance. Cooperation 
in school government therefore seems more reasonable than a 
scheme of pure self-government, and it is along this line that 
the most helpful work has been done in giving the secondary 

14 The idea is not a new one. It goes back to the great school of 
Trotzendorf in the Middle Ages ; beyond him to Vittorino's wonderful 
school in the early Renaissance ; beyond him, in a way, to the source of 
modern secondary school pedagogy, Quintilian. It is merely a revival 
through the inspiration of modern pedagogy, which has for its basis 
the best of historical pedagogy. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 439 

school pupil opportunities to express himself in the govern- 
ment of the school. To place pupil-government wholly in the 
hands of the pupils themselves would take away one of the 
main functions of the school, — that of suggestion, of guidance, 
of efficient influence that come from a combination of the two 
forces, pupil and teacher. Sharing responsibility and initiative 
takes school government out of the realm of theory. 

The late nineteenth century began to see some attempts to 
carry out the principle of self-government. The School City, 
the Citizen-Tribune plan, and other similar organizations came 
into notice and had some success. But they were top-heavy 
with details of organization too complicated for general adop- 
tion. Simpler schemes have prevailed. Many schools have 
been successfully carrying out the principle of student-coopera- 
tion in one form or another. The principle will be carried out 
with more exact appreciation of adolescent nature, and hence 
with better adaptation to that nature. It is to become a regu- 
lar policy, rather than an intermittent one. 

Relations of cooperation to high school social life. — There 
are in the high school special groupings and associations 
that have been non-scholastic, extra-school associations. But 
under twentieth century high school conditions, with the 
broader interpretation of program and curriculum and the 
extended daily time limits of school life, they will be more 
closely correlated with the general work of the school. They 
will be a definite agency in promoting school spirit and school 
activities. These associations are the school societies of all 
sorts growing out of the new development of the social instinct. 
Definitely attached to the school program in its wider interpre- 
tation, under sympathetic guidance and training that give a 
higher freedom, they will accomplish two far-reaching pur- 
poses. First, they will give one of the most desirable, because 
natural, opportunities for cultivating self direction and co- 
operation in forwarding the great interests of the school. Such 
organizations that rise from the natural flowering of the social 
instinct will give a zest to school spirit, and, rightly encouraged 
and developed, will advance important school movements far 
beyond bounds that could be reached by less natural agencies. 
Here perhaps lies the safest and soundest solution of the high 



440 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

school social problem left by the nineteenth century. The first 
result accomplished carries the second with it. The adolescent 
may be occupied, even absorbed, in achievement in place of the 
vapid interests offered by high school " society " life when no 
pains were taken to give his cravings higher exercise, or when 
the pains taken took a non-adolescent direction. The society 
idea must be one of the presuppositions of the twentieth cen- 
tury high school. It readily adapts itself to cooperative plans 
for government, and, while keeping strictly within the natural, 
healthful interests of high school pupils, may be brought to a 
higher fruitage in making the social side of the twentieth cen- 
tury high school worthy of the school and its opportunities. 

Cooperation in school government as a means of devel- 
oping interest in community ideals. — Power as it slowly 
develops in the adolescent's life should overflow into commu- 
nity life. This gives meaning to it all, and so appeals to the 
adolescent. It gives relations, and so again appeals. It is sug- 
gestive and it leads to great wholes, and still again appeals. 
An acquisition, as already suggested, is never complete till it 
has expression. Expression is never complete till it unites the 
individual to the world. Failure to give such application in 
school life brings limitation and loss. It affects the whole 
personality. The physical rebounds to great ideals equally 
with the psychical. Adolescent personality owes quite as much 
to the first as to the second. 

So then esthetic ideals attained in study will be worked 
out in school grounds 15 and home grounds, school walls and 
home walls, school order and home order, school means of 
esthetic culture and home means of esthetic culture; and to 
the school and home applications will be added applications in 
wider circles. Literary ideals will find expression in the owner- 
ship of fine books, fine inside and outside. Civic ideals will be 
applied not only in school government, but in civic relations 
to the community. Principles of science will be applied to 
bettering school equipment and school hygiene, and will find 
similar expression in the home and the town. Appreciation of 
the advantages of high school education will develop interest 

15 The school environment thus may be made a distinct means of de- 
veloping ideals. 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HIGH SCHOOL 441 

and stimulate participation in high school extension work. All 
these ideas remain in large degree unknown till they are seen 
in their practical relations. They are not realized in their full 
meaning till they have the larger application in social life. The 
teacher's function does not end with teaching his subject. He 
must be a constant stimulus to this higher education. 

Federation. — So far we have considered the high school 
individually. But high schools have long been united more or 
less loosely in associations, and have been influenced by com- 
mon standards. There are two conditions for securing enter- 
prise and progress, whether for a person or for an institu- 
tion, — 1, individual freedom to develop initiative; 2, coopera- 
tion that secures the best for all. But this cooperation must be 
of a type that stimulates without hampering and without con^- 
fining the individual to the pace that a closely centralized system 
might impose on the whole organization. As already noted, in 
the early history of the high school customs and sentiments, 
methods and matter were imposed from above and by associa- 
tions dominated by university sentiment. At the close of the 
nineteenth century, however, a certain freedom for individual 
development and adaptation had been attained. There had also 
grown up a kind of group spirit, an indigenous tendency to 
develop common norms and standards and to influence as many 
high schools as possible to adopt them. It remains for the 
twentieth century to develop a larger power of association that 
will give higher and broader standards and a more stimulating 
unity, but at the same time conserve individual freedom. This 
is a delicate enterprise. It may be carried out by federating 
local associations through a central association made up of dele- 
gates from the local bodies. The present committee on the 
reorganization of secondary education is a step in this direc- 
tion. Such a federation would develop and recommend norms, 
methods, and general guiding principles, and would encourage 
high schools in all sections to work out types of high school 
education adapted to particular needs. In this way the high 
school would maintain and utilize the best ideals, become in a 
way a clearing house for both individual and group thinking, 
and would make high school ideals not only progressive but 
effective. 



442 THE HIGH SCHOOL 

Conclusion. — Under the favorable conditions thus sup- 
plied for individual initiative, and with the inspiration and 
knowledge that come from association, the twentieth century- 
high school is to study its obligations and opportunities more 
intimately and intelligently and enter upon the larger mission 
that such a study will suggest. Its work is not to be play, on 
the one hand, nor an unwelcome drudgery on the other. It 
is not to be a luxury, a social privilege, but a democratic neces- 
sity. It will not be characterized as abstract, formal, perfunc- 
tory, remote and out of touch with present needs, impractical. 
It will be developmental in method, cooperative in government, 
responsive in attitude, cosmopolitan in study-opportunities, uni- 
versal. It will be a real initiation into the choicest treasures of 
the race, — its acquisitions, its satisfactions, its ambitions, its 
opportunities, its ideals. It will help its pupils to understand 
themselves and the vocation to which they are hastening ; it will 
develop public spirited appreciation of others and a generous 
spirit of cooperation. The adolescent school will have been 
restored. It will assume leadership in developing community 
standards and ideals. The twentieth century high school with 
its immense possibilities is to stand out as an embodiment of 
the most inspiring educational ideal of the ages. It will hold 
the most important place not only in perfecting the worker for 
his work, but, what is quite as important, in equipping him for 
the more profitable employment of his leisure. 



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A representative and useful, but not exhaustive, list of books and arti- 
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Allen, F. D. Remnants of Early Latin. Boston, 1880. 

Allen, F. H. The Great Cathedrals of the World. 2 vols. Boston, 



Appian. The Civil Wars, in his Roman History (translated by H. 
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Atkinson, J. The Shah Nameh (tr.). London and N. Y., 1886. 

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Baikie, J. Sea-Kings of Crete. London, 1910. 

Banks, J. The Works of Hesiod, Callimachus, and Theognis (tr.). 
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Barton, G. E. Sketch of Semitic Origins. N. Y., 1902. 

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Becker, W. A. Gallus, or Roman Scenes of the Time of Augustus 
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444 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Bryan, E. B. Nascent Stages and Their Pedagogical Significance. 

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INDEX 



Roman numerals refer to chapters, Arabic to pages. 



Academy, — aim, program, meth- 
od, 3288. ; a feeder, 330. 

Administration,— 77, 86, Q2f. ; in 
20th century high school, 4238., 
431 ff., 435ff. See also chapters 
on primitive times, primitive 
tribes, Greek education, Roman 
education, etc. 

Adolescence,— 131*., igi., 24, 441"., 
55, 57ff., 60, 64, 7sf., 105L, 125, 
132L, 149J., 151, 314, 36>f., 369ft-, 
411, 414ft"., 421 ff., 424ff., 431, 

433ff- 

Adolescent School, — See Secon- 
dary School ; Adolescent School 
lost, 42iff. ; found, 4238. 

Agricola, — Some of his educa- 
tional ideas, 264. 

Agricultural High School, — 338ff«, 
390ff., 4291. 

Aims, — see Ideals; see also 
Graphic Summary, insert oppo- 
site page 442. 

Alfred, — educational service, 197. 

Aristotle, — compared with Plato, 
73i. ; aims, program, method, 
73ft., 92ft".; his state, 92; con- 
tributions, 74ff. 

Aryans, — 14L, 19. 

Ascham, — Method in language, 
267. 

Athletics,— 367fT. 

Beginner's Latin Book, 260, 276f. 
Buchanan, — his secondary cur- 
riculum, 267. 

Capella, — abstract of his gram- 
mar, 206ff. 

Cassian and early Monastic 
Schools, — 191 f. 

Cassiodorus' School, — 191. 



453 



Catechetical School, — 187, 191. 

Cathedral Schools, — 195, 268. 

Chantry Schools, — 268. 

Charlemagne's Service to Educa- 
tion, — 197. 

Cicero, — compared with Quin- 
tilian, 129; references to educa- 
tion, 161 f. 

Cities, — their growth and effect 
on schools, 21 5f. 

City School, — growth, aims, pro- 
gram, and method, 235ft., 289; 
significance, 238L 

Civics, — community civics, 362. 

Co-education, — 8, 26, 54, 77, 81, 
83, 85, 89, 92, 104, 127, 187I, 
223, 307I, 3nff-, 427f- 

Colet's School, — 266. 

College, — origin of, 223. 

Commercial High School — High 
School of Commerce, — 337f ., 
3«4f. 

Compulsory Education, — in early 
times, 85, 91, 93 f. 

Cooperation in Government, — 
436ff. 

Curriculum, — elementary and gen- 
eral, 9f., 24ft"., 41, 42ff., 49, 51 ff., 
56f., 59f-, 80, 83f., 95ff-, I02ff, 
140, I44ff., i87f., 195, 236f., 278, 
295, 3^7, 348f«, 4i2ff., 422; sec- 
ondary, I2f., 268., 29, 3of., 33ff., 
44f., 54, 56f., 59f., 65f., 67f., 7if., 
74ff., 79ff-, 84f., 89ff., iosff., 
H5ff., I22f., 125, I26f., I3lf., 
133, i4off., i85ff., 190, 191, 196L, 
i99f., 202f., 2i8f., 222, 224, 228, 
23iff., 236ff., 246f., 252f., 255ff., 
264ff., 268ff., 278, 282, 273ft., 285, 
286ff., 289, 29off., 295f., 30off., 
303, 305ff., 324, 327, 329, 331, 333, 
334ff-, 337, 338ff., 343*?-, 349ff-, 
36off., 37 iff-, 3778. Typical cur- 



454 



INDEX 



ricula of different types of high 
schools, 377ft. Content, 409ft. 

Degrees, — 221 f., 228; degrees in 
"grammar," 222, 228. 

Democracy in Secondary Educa- 
tion,— 308, 310, 355ft-, 426ft. 

Discipline, — ■ see Government. 

Donatus, — abstract of his gram- 
mar, 210 ft. 

Early Christian Centuries, — 
schools of, 184ft*., 214L ; new 
ideals, new school-forms, 184ft. ; 
chief characteristics of the 
period, 189. See also Graphic 
Summary (general). 

Education, Science of, — 73ft., 
12.9ft., 2ggi., 3141". 

Eighteenth Century Secondary 
Education, — 285ft. 

Elective Principle, — 318, 372ff. 

Elementary Education, — gi., ioff., 
15ft., 24ft., 41, 42ft., 49, 56L, 80, 
83L, 95ff., 102ft., 140, 144ft-, 
i87f., 195, 197, 236U 327, 348f., 
412ft. ; a rejuvenated elementary 
school, 422. See also Graphic 
Summary (general). 

Elyot's Secondary School, — 25of . 

Emancipation of Secondary 
School, — 352f . 

" Enlightenment," The, — 286ft., 290, 

303. 

Episcopal Schools, — 223f . 
Equipment of High School, — 

433* 

Erasmus, — some of his educa- 
tional ideas, 264. 

Evolution of Secondary School, — 
343ft- 

Examinations and Examination 
Reform, — 221, 228, 417L 

Extension Work of High School, 
43i f- 

Fathers, Christian, — educational 

views, 181 ft. 
Federation of Secondary School 

Associations, — 441. 
Feltre, da, — typical secondary 

school of Early Renaissance, 

245ft. I comparison with Quin- 

tilian, 249. 



Folk-lore,— 6f., I5f., 17, 23, 33, 
39, 52, 56, 105, 108, 109. 

Francke, — influence in forming 
secondary school ideals, — 290L 
For realization of a real pro- 
gram see Hecker. 

Fraternities, Fligh School, — 305f., 
439f. 

Girls, Education of, — 77, 81, 83, 
85, 89, 104, 187L, 307f., 311ft., 
427L See also Coeducation. 

Government, — 25, 88, 103, 135, 
145, 147, 149L, 202, 204, 223, 
247L, 259L, 262, 305I, 435; 
cooperative government, 436ft. 

Gradation, — 80, 83, 94L, 139ft., 
228, 343, 423ft. 

Grammar School, — 114ft., I2I > 
129ft., I39ff-, 184, i86f., 190, 26S, 
280, 302, 323ft., 378ft. 

Graphic Summaries, — Greek qual- 
ities, 64L ; Greek and Roman 
qualities compared, ggft. ; Ro- 
mans, early and late, H2f. ; evo- 
lution of secondary education, 
insert facing page 442. See 
also Secondary Education in 
Index (end of topic). 

Greek, — fixed in curriculum, 294f. 

Greek Education, — social forces 
at work, educational aims, pro- 
grams, methods; — early period, 
48ft.; later period, 61 ft. ; new 
teachers, 66f. ; Greek contribu- 
tions to edcuation, 70. See also 
Graphic Summary (general). 

Greeks, — characteristics, 62ft., 64ft. ; 
compared with Romans, ggi. 

Guarino, — some educational ideas, 
249. 

Guidance* Vocational and Educa- 
tional, — 372f . 

Guilds, — 216. 

Guild Schools, — 237f., 268. 

Gymnasium (German), — 259, 295, 
301. 

Hecker, — influence toward a new 
secondary school, 291. 

Hesiod, — educational ideas, 44, 47. 

High School, — 302f., 331ft.; dif- 
ferentiations, 303L ; ideals and 
aims, 33 if.; programs of studies 



INDEX 



455 



and curricula, 331 f., 333, 334ft-, 
377ff. ; manual training high 
school, 336 ; high school of com- 
merce, 337f. ; agricultural high 
school, 338ft., 425f . ; method, 341 ; 
vassalage, 350L ; emancipation, 
352L; problems and needs, 
353ft.; democratising of high 
school education, 355ft.; 20th 
century high school, 409$. ; jun- 
ior high school, 424ft.., 431. See 
also Graphic Summary (gen- 
eral). 

Higher Education, — see Univer- 
sity ; also pp. 303, 348ft. 

Homeric Age, — political organiza- 
tion, 3gf . ; educational ideals, 
educational forces, curriculum 
and method, 40ft. See also- 
Graphic Summary (general). 

Humanism, — 24off., 250, 252ft. ; 
New Humanism, 294; Newer 
Humanism, 301. 

Hygiene, — 366?. ; social hygiene, 
personal hygiene, sex hygiene, 
369ft. 

Ideals and Aims, — 8f., 13, 251., 29, 
30L, 40, 42, 5 if., 56, 59f., 62ft., 
65, 67, 71 i-, 74%, 79U 821., 88f., 
90, 93, 97U 99ff-, noff, 112ft., 
1301., I35f-, 1381., 164ft., 169ft., 
i8of., 1841., 189, 193, 198, 205, 
213L, 2i9ff., 2241., 233ft., 240ft., 
245 f., 253ft., 260ft., 264ft., 282, 
283f., 286ft., 293f., 296ft., 30of., 
305ft., 308, 310, 314ft., 327, 329, 
33i, 333*-, 337$; 343ff., 347ft-, 
355ft., 360, 363ft-, 414ft-, 423ft-, 
427, 432, 440. See also Graphic 
Summary (general). 

Initiation, — 13, 18, 191., 26ft., 33^., 
55, 60, I05f., 125, 205. 

Ipswich School, — 26~6f. 

Jesus — Teacher, — 164ft. ', funda- 
mental characteristics of his 
teaching, 166; principles, teach- 
ing qualities, objective teaching, 
167ft. 

Junior High School, — 424f., 428, 
431. 

Latin, — fixed in secondary cur- 



riculum, 252ft., 258, 260, 266 and 
XVI generally, 274f., 285; meth- 
od, ngi., 124, 144ft., 163, 188, 
i9of., 20off., 204, 22of., 223, 225, 
23 if., 247f., 250, 253L, 258, 260ft., 
264ft., 268ft., 274ft., 282L, 285f., 
3i6f., 410, 414. 

Leibnitz, — new curriculum, 289. 

Lily, — Latin grammar, 271 f. 

Linguistics, — rise and predomi- 
nance, 67, 114L, n6ff., 119L, 122, 
131L, 139ft. See also 410, 413L 

Luther, — educational ideas, 264L 

Lycees, — 291, 302. 

Manual Arts, — 291, 302, 334ft. 

Manual Training High School, — 
334ft. 

Mathematics, — enlarged in secon- 
dary curriculum, 23$, 236%., 275, 
289ft., 301. 

Mediaeval Secondary Education, — 
ideals, programs, methods, serv- 
ice, 193ft.; & new school, I94f. 
See also Graphic Summary 
(general). 

Method, — general, ioff., 15ft., 24ft., 
31, 42ft., 53, 57, 65f., 79, 89, 94, 
95f., 103ft., 169ft., i88ff., 20off.; 
elementary , ioff., 15ft., 25, 42ft., 
53, 57, 9i, 95f-, 103ft., 144ft-; 
secondary, iof., 12ft., 18, 26ft., 
31, 33ft., 42ft., 44f., 54f., 57f., 60, 
6 5 f., 68f., 71 f-, 74ft-, 77, 79, 8 4 ff., 
89, 90, 97, 105ft., 119ft., 125, I27f., 
132?., 134ft., i47ft., 168, 169ft., 
179ft., i8of., i88f., i90f., 200ft., 

202f., 220f., 223f., 225, 228f., 

23 if., 238, 247f., 256ft., 260ft., 
264ft., 269ft., 274, 275f., 282, 
285ft., 298, 2'99f., 316ft., 324f., 
329f., 341, 346f., 351, 363, 366f., 
37of., 409ft., 414ft., 425, 433L 
See also Graphic Summary (gen- 
eral). 

Monastic Orders, — 194, 206. 

Monastic Schools, — 194ft., 223, 
268. 

Moral Education, — 103, 118, 141, 
147, 149, 419. 

Navajo School, — 36. 
Neander, — some of his ideas as to 
education, 265 f. 



456 



INDEX 



Nineteenth Century Secondary 
Education, — 2936:. ; political so- 
cial, and religious influences 
affecting education, 2gsi. ; ideals, 
2Q3f., 296ft"., 3i4ff. ; progress of 
studies, 295 f., 303; the High 
School, 302ft.; new phases of 
school life, 305ft.; high school 
social life, 305ft.; universal sec- 
ondary education, 308, 310, 
(355ff.) ; secondary school col- 
lege relations, 309; needs, 31 1» 
32if. ; method, 316ft.; secondary 
school principles, 3181" . ; a secon- 
dary school philosophy, 3i8f. ; 
training for secondary school 
teachers, 3i9ff. ; outlook and 
problems, 353ft. ; no settled type, 
355 ; typical high school curricula 
and programs of studies, 377ft". 
See also Graphic Summary 
(general). 



Oratory,— 65ff., 114ft"., 136. 

Orders, Religious, — 194, 206. 

Organization, — see Administra- 
tion. See generally chapters on 
secondary education of the dif- 
ferent periods. 

Origen's School, — 191. 



Philosophy, Schools of, — 68f. 

Physical Education, — 10, 13, 24, 
27f,. 44f., 52, 54f., 59, 62, 74, 83f., 
85, 94, 96, 105L, 118, 144, 146, 
363ff. 

Plato, — compared with Aristotle, 
73f. ; educational principles and 
educational forms, 73ft. ; his 
state, 78f., 81 f. ; contributions, 
74ff- 

Play,— 83f., 91, 95, 105, 3o6f., 
367ff. 

Popular Education, — see Public 
Education; "popular" secon- 
dary school, 327. 

Preparatory School, ("feeder" of 
the University), — 220, 230, 
278f., 309, 324, 330, 332, # 35ofi\, 
420, 422 ; changes in relations of 
secondary school to university, 
309, 352f., 420, 422. 



Primitive School,— gi., I3f., 15ft*., 
26ff., 3off., 33m See also Graph- 
ic Summary (general). 

Primitive Times, — social organi- 
zation, ideals, acquisitions, edu- 
cation, iff. 

Primitive Tribes To-day, — social 
organization, ideals, acquisitions, 
education, 21 ff. 

Professional Training for Teach- 
ers,— 312, 3i9ff. f 333, 415, 419, 
424f ., 434- 

Programs of Studies, — gi., iaff., 
3of., 42ff., s6f., 70, 87f., 98, 108, 
I23ff., i4off., 163, i85ff., i9off., 
203f., 224, 236ff., 246ff., 250, 
256ft., 264ft., 274, 289ft"., 29Sf., 
3O0ff., 324, 327, 329f-, 333ft; 
347^., 36oft\, 37iff., 377ft. 

Public Education, — 11, i6f., 26f., 
3if., 33ff-, 42ff., 45, 78ff., 81, 86, 
91 ff., 137, 235f., 263, 309ft., 33i ff. 

Public Schools, — see Public Edu- 
cation. " Great Public Schools," 
" Grammar Schools " {Eng- 
land), 121, 139, 280, 302. 

Quintilian, — aims, principles, pro- 
gram of studies, method in his 
secondary school (grammar 
school), 129ft".; his school the 
model for future secondary 
schools, I37f. 

Rabelais, — some educational ideas, 
265. 

Realschule, — 291. 

Renaissance Secondary Education, 
— ideals, programs of studies, 
methods, — early, 240k. ; later, 
252ft". ; spread of education, 
279ft". ; Renaissance contribu- 
tions to education, 273ft. ; state 
schools, 263. See also Graphic 
Summary (general). 

Renaissance Educators, — 245ft"., 
249f., 254ft"., 260ft., 264ft". 

Rhetoric, Schools of — 67, 122. 

Revaluation of Studies, — 377ff. ; 
content-pedagogy, 409ft". 

Ritteracademie, — 2891. 

Roman Education, — ideals, curric- 
ula, methods, — early, 99ft. ; 
later, noff. ; Roman Grammar 



INDEX 



457 



School a ruling type of secon- 
dary education, itfi . ; decay, 
164. See also Graphic Sum- 
mary (general). 
Romans, — qualities of, etc., ooff., 
112L 

St. Paul's School,— 266, 268. 

Scholarship, — idea emphasized by 
early universities, 231. 

Science,— fixed in curriculum, 
286ff., 296L, 298, 301; conf. 411. 

Science of Education, — 73ff., 
129ft*., 29Qf., 314L 

Secondary Education, — primitive 
times, 9ft*., I2ff., 18; primitive 
tribes to-day, 26ff. ; primitive 
compared with modern, 2Qi. ; 
Homeric, 41 ff. ; early Greek, 
54ft*.; later Greek, 65ft. ; Plato 
and Aristotle, 8off., 84ft*., 97f . ; 
early Roman, iosff. ; /ate/' i?o- 
man, H4ff. ; Cicero and Quintil- 
ian, 140ft"., 147ft". ; _ early Chris- 
tian, i86ff. ; mediceval, 1946?. ; 
^ar/y university period, 21 /ff., 
222ff., 230; ^ar/y Renaissance, 
245ff. ; /ate Renaissance, 252ft.; 
(rapid growth of secondary 
schools in Renaissance, 27gft.) ; 
17th and 18th centuries, 285ff. ; 
igth century, 293ft". ; the High 
School, 302ft., 323ff. ; evolution 
of secondary school, 343ff. ; 
changing status of secondary 
school, 347ff. ; 20th century prob- 
lems, 353ff. ; 20th Century High 
School, 359ft"., 409ft"., 421 ff. ; 
graphic summaries 9f., 301*., 
42ff., s6ff., 70, 87f., 98, 108, I23ff., 
i6iff., 190ft"., 203f., 224f., 246ft*., 
256ff. ; also graphic summaries 
in insert opposite page 442. 

Secondary School, — model form 
early established, I37f . ; differ- 
entiations, 303, 333ff., (see also 
all references under Secondary 
Education) ; position in an edu- 
cational system historically and 
naturally, 347ff., 359L See also 
graphic summaries under Secon- 
dary Education. 

Semler, — influence toward a new 
secondary school, 291. 



Seventeenth-Eighteenth^ Century 
Secondary School, — ideals, pro- 
gram, method, new leaders, 
growth in different countries, 
285ft. See also Graphic Sum- 
mary (general). 

Six- Year High School,— 423ft". 

Social Hygiene, Sex Hygiene, — 
369ff. 

Social Studies, — history, geogra- 
phy, science, etc., 286ft"., 296ft"., 
301. See generally XVIII, 
XIX. 

State Schools, — 263, 309ft"., 396ft". 
See also Public Education. 

Status of Secondary School, — its 
evolution, relation of secondary 
school to university, 278, 318, 
347ff., 359I, 420, 42iff. 

Studies, — see Curriculum; content 
of studies the supreme concern, 
409ft". 

Sturm, — his secondary school, 
255ft. ; comparison with Quin- 
tilian and Da Feltre, 259; his 
school a culmination, its influ- 
ence, 255, 259, 282f. ; other ideals 
of the period, 260ft. 

Supervision, — 20th century high 
school, 435. 

Sylvius, — ' 249. 



Teachers, — 11, 14, i6ff., 251"., 33ft., 
42'f, 45, 54I, 57, 59f., 66, 7if., 
76, 89, 91, 104, 106, 119, 134, 
149, 164ft"., 186, 188, I94f., 223, 
245ft*., 2S4ff., 26off., 263, 319ft"., 
415, 418, 424L, 434 ; central qual- 
ities, 415, 419, 424I, 434. See 
also Graphic Summary (gen- 
eral). 

Terminology, — new, more scienti- 
fic, 304f., 376. 

Text-books, — medieval, 199^-, 

2o6ff. ; origin of modern idea 
of text-book, 228; typical Re- 
naissance text-books, 268ff. ; 
new text-books, 276T, 288; 
20th century text-books, 41 if. 
See also chapters on secondary 
school of different periods. 

Thoroughness, — different types, — 
363- 



458 



INDEX 



Township High School,— 392fi\, 

43 1- 
Training for Secondary Teaching, 

— 319ft., 415, 424U 434- 3 
Trotzendorf, — some of his educa- 
tional ideas, 265. 

Twentieth Century High School, 

— ideals and aims, 360, 363ft".; 
program of studies, 360ft., 37*ft-> 
374ff., 377ff-, 409ff- ; method, 
362f., 366f., 409ft-, 4i4ff-, 424**-, 
434; vocational idea, 363ft . ; 
physical education, personal hy- 
giene, 363, 365ff; 369ft-; ath- 
letics, 367ft.; election, educa- 
tional guidance, 372, 375*-; vo- 
cational guidance, 372f. ; reval- 
uation of studies, 373ft. ; reform 
in terminology, 376, (see also 
3041".) ; inheritances and prob- 
lems, 376f. ; typical curricula, 
377ft.; study-content (basal ele- 
ment of method), 409ft.; teach- 
ers, 424L, 434; examinations, 
4171". ; adolescent school lost — 
found, 42 iff.; six-year high 
school, 423ft.; junior and senior 
high schools, 4241"., 431 ; organi- 
sation of high school education, 
424ft. ; concentration — univer- 
sity of high schools, 426ft.; co- 
education, 427$.; township high 
school, 431 ; extension work, 
43if. ; continuous sessions, 432; 
universal high school education, 
432; equipment, 433ft.; sex dis- 
tribution of teachers, 434f-; su- 
pervision, 435 ; administration, 
435ff. ; cooperative government, 



437^' J federation, 441. See also 
Graphic Summary (general). 

Universal Secondary Education, — 
308, 310, 355ff., 432f. 

United States, — educational devel- 
opment, 323ft.; the Grammar 
School, 323ft. (a "feeder" 324) ; 
"popular" secondary school, 
327$.; the Academy, 328ft. (a 
"feeder" 330); the High 
School, 331ft. (a "feeder," 
332) ; growth of the High 
School, 332ft. ; differentiations, 
333ft.; Manual Training High 
School, 336; High School of 
Commerce, 337f . ; Agricultural 
High School, 338ft.; 20th Cen~ 
tury High School, 359ft. 

University, — origin and rise of, 
213ft. ; reviving scholarship, 
2141"., 218; secondary education 
in the university, 2igi., 2231". ; 
admission, 2igi. ; preparatory 
school, 220, 230; aims, curricu- 
lum, method, equipment, 2i8ff. ; 
degrees, 221 f., 228; general edu- 
cational conditions of period, 
226f. ; contributions of period, 
227ft. See also Graphic Sum- 
mary (general). 

University of High Schools, — 
426, 429ft. 

Vassalage of Secondary School, — 
351 f.; emancipation, 35<2f. 

Vocational Idea, — 303, 363ft-, 
386ft., 422, 429ft. ; a study of vo- 
cations, 372f. 

Vocational High School, — 302f ., 
333ff-> 343, 385ff., 429ff. 






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